<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>i'm not alone by orphan_account</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417317">i'm not alone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>5 Seconds of Summer (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Discrimination, Fluff and Smut, Horror, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Paranormal, Semi-Public Sex, they/them pronouns</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:15:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,528</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417317</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"not a desperate influencer, then," mike says, making a face at calum.</p><p>"desperate to influence what? the fucking ghosts in my house? kind of doubt they'd need lifestyle advice." calum crosses his arms again and glares down at the tabletop.</p><p>ashton snorts. mike shoots him a glare, but then the barest hint of a smirk also quirks up the corner of their mouth.</p><p>"told you he was funny," ashton says to mike.</p><p>"told you you were crushing," mike fires back.</p><p>calum's neck gets warm.</p><p>"are you two going to banter adorably like some wholesome whedon scene from buffy, or are you actually here to help me?" he looks between the two of them like he's hoping one of them will say sike.</p><p>"you know buffy?" ashton side-tracks.</p><p>"he's gay and attracts the supernatural. what do you think?" mike replies.<br/><br/>calum had worked hard to get into uni on a sports scholarship. all he wanted was to play football, pass his classes and meet the occasional hot guy.</p><p>instead, he moves into a haunted house with his best friend and discovers he might have magic powers? this starting to smell like a netflix original series to anyone else? at least there are still hot love interests, right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael Clifford/Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood/Ashton Irwin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i'm not alone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this might be a trilogy idk</p><p>title from me &amp; ur ghost by blackbear</p><p>tw // supernatural horror, violence, verbal abuse, mentions of lynching, bad pop culture references</p><p>lowercase throughout was intentional</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>"whaddup, interwebs! ew, i sound like a douchebag. hello, people of the internet. better. less creepy. neutral. now that we got that out the way, my name is c— actually, no. i'm not telling you my name. i know what happens to guys like me online.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"the reason i started this instagram account is because my new house is haunted. i know, okay? shut up. i'm not making this up. this ain't some sunshine girl crap. i am actually making this video on the third phone i've had to buy since we moved in here. weird power surges keep shorting out all our electronics, except our tv. do ghosts like tv? point is, stuff's been happening. the other night, i caught my dog barking at our lit up tv screen. it was just playing static, but a hand suddenly appeared against the glass – on the inside – and i dropped my fucking mug. tea everywhere. it was a fucking mess...</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"anyway, i'm using this account to record everything that happens, because we can't just move. my roommate kinda tied us into a year-long lease. live-streaming my own doom. later, losers."</em>
</p><p>standing on the field in nothing but shorts and cleats is really not how calum had envisioned this going. sure, he could just not have come, signed over his one scholarship to someone else, but that would mean two things:</p><p>1) he'd have to stop playing football, and<br/>2) he'd have to keep his grades up.</p><p>both are inhuman forms of punishment. having to be scrutinised by seniors on the team is a bullshit waste of time, but it's still not nearly as bad as having to get an A at uni. so, here he is. still, fuck this, though.</p><p>"who the fuck are you?" the one senior wants to know. mouth-breathing joke of a player. calum had seen his warm-up. he couldn't score a single goal. figures the shittiest player on the team would be keen to humiliate the greenies.</p><p>"calum hood." he stares right into the older man's eyes, unflinching and unwavering.</p><p>"you got an attitude on you, greenie. you the hood who took gold in brazil last year?" the idiot wants to know.</p><p>"sure am," calum deadpans.</p><p>the guy glares him down, but calum still doesn't even blink. he's not here for this pathetic intimidation game. he wants to play footie, get his degree, make friends and live his life. he worked hard to be here. he deserves this.</p><p>"i've decided i don't like you, calum hood," the idiot voices, conversationally.</p><p>someone calum hasn't paid any attention to until now snorts and then smirks. he's kind of ridiculously attractive, with his honey-coloured curls, broad shoulders and dimples on either side of a cheeky smirk. calum finds himself smiling back as the guy regards him, eyes traveling leisurely down his chest and lingering on his tattoos.</p><p>"got something to say, irwin?" the idiot aims at the gorgeous guy.</p><p>"just, can't say hood here appears to care very much, either way, whether you like him or not, jones."</p><p>jones turns back to calum, a glint of anger in his eye. calum crosses his arms in front of his chest, making the blonde guy's smile widen. actually, it makes him chuckle off to the side, which just about inflates calum's ego to two times its usual size.</p><p>"are we going to have a problem?" jones asks him.</p><p>"do you want we should have a problem?" calum matches his conversational tone from earlier.</p><p>but after staring him down for another minute, jones just backs off and sends them all to run suicides, entirely forgetting his mission to publicly humiliate the rest of the new guys. calum runs them happily, enjoying the exertion, but enjoying irwin's eyes tracking his progress up and down the field even more.</p><p>he's leaving the locker rooms later, thankfully back to wearing a shirt, with soft shorts and sneakers this time, when someone catches up with him.</p><p>"he wants to kick your ass, you know," a familiar voice says next to him. calum doesn't have to turn to know who it is.</p><p>"i cordially invite him to try," he responds, smirking to himself.</p><p>irwin full-on laughs now. "pretty sure your apparent death-wish is the most charming thing about you."</p><p>"pretty sure that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," calum says with a straight face.</p><p>"does that mean we're dating?" irwin returns, face schooled into as close to genuine curiosity as he can make it.</p><p>"one condition: i get to be the snarky misanthrope and you're the cute one everyone likes."</p><p>"you think i'm cute?" he fires back, smooth as ever.</p><p>"ashton!" an annoyed voice yells from ahead of them. someone in torn jeans with intensely teal hair and an eyebrow piercing stands there, glaring.</p><p>next to him, irwin – or ashton, he guesses – immediately loses the ease to his posture and looks worried.</p><p>"i gotta go. see you at practise, calum hood," he says, flashing calum a small smile before running off, duffle thumping into his back as he goes. before he even reaches them, the teal-haired individual does an about-face and takes off like a bat out of hell. ashton speeds up to fall in stride with him.</p><p>at home, calum finds the front door gaping open, duke's barks audible in their desperation from the street. a terrifying image flashes through his mind as he runs inside, following the sound all the way to the backyard. there, he finds duke's tiny body shaking as he barks and barks. sensing calum's proximity, he runs over to his owner, whining like crazy. calum picks him up, running fingers through his soft fur as he advances on the scene before him.</p><p>there, lying face-down on the paving next to the pool, is calum's roommate, roy english. he looks extremely pale, even going blue in certain places, and he isn't moving. figuring he has to face this sooner rather than later, calum puts duke down and then gently flips roy over. his eyes are open, not glassy per sé, but definitely not focused on anything calum can see. out of his nose, ears and mouth, this thickish clear fluid is leaking. a hand over his mouth reveals that he's still breathing, albeit super shallowly. his heartbeat is faint and almost all the colour is drained out of him.</p><p>calum picks him up, cradling his body to his chest, and carries him inside and to the big bathroom. there, he sets roy down gently on the bath mat and starts running a warm bath. while the water runs, the room filling slowly with steam, calum heads to the hall closet and finds about three heavy blankets to take to his room. after sitting in the bathroom with roy through about four bath refills and until some colour returns to his friend's face, calum wraps him in a towel and carries his prone form to bed with him, too scared to leave him alone.</p><p>finally settled down, duke between them, calum makes sure roy is tucked in tight, lacing his hand with his friend's, mostly as a precaution, but also because he doesn't know how he's meant to sleep in this godforsaken house with his best friend unconscious in his bed. eventually, though, calum begins to drift off uneasily, mind full of the image in his head from when he'd come home to the open door – how it'd been exactly what he'd seen outside by the pool, and how he'd really hoped the visions had stopped after his grandfather's death.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"fuck any of you for any shitty comments about my face, okay? i spent the night at the hospital."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>– deep, shuddering breaths –</em>
</p><p>
  <em>– a hand comes up to wipe at his nose –</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"i got home yesterday to find my friend and roommate unconscious by the pool and leaking really weird, clear fluid out of his mouth and ears and nose. he was so fucking cold. i tried to warm him up and put him to bed. but, in the middle of the night, i woke up to him upright and whispering to the tv, weird, dark shapes moving in the static. i tried to get him away from there, but it's like he couldn't hear me. he just kept talking to the tv, whispering too quietly for me to hear anything but the static. then – oh, god – the hand appeared again. just pressed up to the inside of the screen. and he... he pressed his hand to it, too. this really loud scream filled the room and then he dropped to the floor, seizing and jerking. the doctors don't know what to do."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>– attempts to get himself back under control –</em>
</p><p>
  <em>– tears continue to leak down his face, but at least his voice is steady –</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"look, i'm desperate. if any of you knows what the fuck to do, i'm all ears. i haven't been able to call r— my friend's parents. i don't know what to tell them. so, if you know how to help, please? i am begging here. my DMs are open and i know i only have, like, 200 followers on this account, but i'm posting some video footage from last night. spread it. help us. please…"</em>
</p><p>"mr. hood."</p><p>calum looks up, just fighting gravity to lift his head making it him dizzy and nauseous. it could also be because he hasn't eaten since before practise the previous day and he hasn't slept again since the incident with roy and the tv. he locks eyes with the doctor, feeling about ready to pass out.</p><p>"he hasn't regained consciousness. nothing we've tried has changed his condition at all. we did a CAT scan and his brain shows crazy amounts of activity, but he remains outwardly unresponsive. we'll keep him here and keep trying, but i think you should probably contact his family."</p><p>her face is kind and genuine and it's just doing more and more to break calum's heart. she's right, of course, but he still doesn't know what to tell them. he still doesn't know if he can actually say it out loud to them. he needs rest.</p><p>"thank you, doctor."</p><p>she gives him a sorry smile before disappearing back up the bustling corridor. calum drags himself to his feet and disappears in the opposite direction.</p><p>the best call would probably be to go to bed and sleep until his first class, which is after lunch today, but he knows he’s just going to have more nightmares until he inevitably screams himself awake. thankfully, his sister agreed to watch duke indefinitely. he just doesn’t know where he’s sleeping for the foreseeable future, but it sure as fuck isn’t going to be that house. mali doesn’t have space for him, and she doesn’t live on campus, and he doesn’t have a car.</p><p>as he wanders mindlessly down the street, his phone vibrates in his pocket. he slips it out, expecting it to be his sister or maybe his mom, but instead he finds a DM from a blacked out instagram account with a super creepy number username. frowning, he almost walks right into two girls in scrubs. they squawk at him and one spills a little coffee on calum's shirt, burning him, but he barely feels it.</p><p>
  <em>campus library has an occult reference section. should help.</em>
</p><p><em>how do u kno what uni im in?</em> calum replies.</p><p>
  <em>your friend's being possessed by a ghost and you're worried about me tracking you down from your poorly concealed video material? get a grip, pal.</em>
</p><p>outraged, calum shoves his phone back into his pocket and heads straight for the library, stopping only to pick up some coffee of his own. he hasn't had caffeine in a long time, but this definitely warrants it, he thinks. he also doesn't really eat sugar anymore, but he picks up two donuts while he's at it.</p><p>at the library, he has a great time asking at the front desk to be pointed to the right section – and by 'great' he means he wishes he was dead. he finally manages to coax one of the grad students out from behind the massive mahogany barrier and the guy gives calum a look over the top of his glasses before heading off in a direction. calum just wanders after him, stuffing a donut into his mouth and chewing slowly.</p><p>"i don't know what classes you're taking, but never make me come this way again. also, sleep is a decent substitute for caffeine."</p><p>calum gives the snarky guy an equally snarky smile. "solid advice. do me a huge favour and fuck off now."</p><p>with a huff, the fuckin' book nerd takes off, adjusting his pretentious tortoise shell frames on his nose.</p><p>calum takes a decent swig off coffee, letting his eyes wander up and down the sky-high stacks. he doesn't even know where to begin. does he just look up possession and yank out the first available book? he doesn't know how to do research aside from googling shit on his mac or saving things to his reading list on his phone. maybe he should start on some youtube videos?</p><p>"well, it's not practise, but i never regret seeing a gorgeous face." </p><p>calum considers just pouring his boiling coffee out over his own head.</p><p>"i assume this means you got mike's DM?" ashton presses on.</p><p>"mike?" he turns around to say, a very forced smile on his face.</p><p>ashton, having found a way to go from looking like a disney prince to looking like a nightmare in a revealing halsey singlet that puts all his muscles right in calum's face, jabs a thumb over his shoulder at the teal-haired person from yesterday. calum had thought them a guy at first, but the makeup around their eyes and the polish on their nails make him think it's probably not that straightforward. they could just be a very goth, very femme-looking guy, but calum is never really comfortable with assuming.</p><p>"yeah," he says to ashton. "we talked."</p><p>ashton nods, casting a look to his friend. "we may have a way to help your friend, but then you're going to have to tell us everything. think you could do that?"</p><p>but calum frowns, crossing his arms in front of his chest again in that imposing way of his. he notes how ashton's gaze drifts down to his biceps and then his chest before glancing at his mouth and finally refocusing on his eyes again.</p><p>"how do i know i can trust either of you?" calum wants to know, hiding his fluster beneath a thin layer of intimidation.</p><p>a smirk tugs ashton's dimples inward. "the way i see it, you don't have much of a choice. now, come on. mike doesn't like to be in old buildings very much."</p><p>still frowning, still feeling the need to intimidate, and still thinking he'd have better luck with youtube, calum follows ashton to one of the study tables. there, he sees that mike has an ornate hand mirror flat on the surface. hand moving swiftly across a drawing pad with the pencil scraping noisily along, mike stares into the reflective depths intently. calum and ashton seemingly go unnoticed.</p><p>they sit and watch the strange person for a while, until their hand stills and they look up, marble-esque jade eyes searching calum's face. for what, calum can't begin to fathom. but then they start drawing again, in the corner of the previous page. when they stop this time, they turn their head to glare at ashton, who looks like he's right about something, a self-satisfied look of pure smugness on his face.</p><p>"not a desperate influencer, then," mike says, making a face at calum.</p><p>"desperate to influence what? the fucking ghosts in my house? kind of doubt they'd need lifestyle advice." calum crosses his arms again and glares down at the tabletop.</p><p>ashton snorts. mike shoots him a glare, but then the barest hint of a smirk also quirks up the corner of their mouth.</p><p>"told you he was funny," ashton says to mike.</p><p>"told you you were crushing," mike fires back.</p><p>calum's neck gets warm.</p><p>"are you two going to banter adorably like some wholesome whedon scene from <em>buffy</em>, or are you actually here to help me?" he looks between the two of them like he's hoping one of them will say sike.</p><p>"you know <em>buffy</em>?" ashton side-tracks.</p><p>"he's gay and attracts the supernatural. what do you think?" mike replies.</p><p>"<em>you're</em> gay and attract the supernatural," calum fires back.</p><p>"yeah, but at least i'm not in denial about it," mike says, a very definite smirk on their face as they reach over to pound fists with ashton.</p><p>"you know what? roy's in hospital fighting for his life right now. so, if the <em>mike and ashton show</em> is over now, i'd like to go be there for my friend." he pushes his chair back, wondering if he should just get a second coffee and more donuts and go veg out by roy's bedside.</p><p>"okay, okay," ashton says, reaching out for calum's hand and pulling him back down. "we're sorry. it was inappropriate. we've both seen your insta posts, but mike has a few questions to ask to decide whether or not we need to take your case."</p><p>"<em>take my c</em>— i'm sorry. is someone's death not enough incentive for you? besides, what the fuck are a couple of goths supposed to do? what, are you going to ask the ghost to give you an all-expense-paid tour of hell?" calum spits at them, yanking his hand back and heading for the door. if they want to turn this whole thing into an episode of <em>buzzfeed unsolved</em> and take advantage of him and roy, they can go fuck themselves.</p><p>and, suddenly, he's looking up into a pair of perfect blue eyes, and a voice like molten gold says, "shane and ryan wish they were us."</p><p>his eyes catch on a lip-ring and then the blackness comes up to meet him.</p><p> </p><p>he's not dead. why are you all so dramatic? <em>rapid, deft fingers with black nails sign smoothly. </em></p><p>
  <em>"maybe because he looks dead."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>luke stares at mike. a stuffed pikachu plushie floats into view and smacks mike upside the head. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"no fair!" mike whines. "no telekinesis!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"can you two shut up?" ashton puts in from off-camera. "he's sleeping."</em>
</p><p>so quick are you to replace our love<em>, luke dramatises, over-exaggerating his hand movements and giving ashton a look of faux-longing.</em></p><p>
  <em>"he's really not dead, though," mike says to the camera. "just knocked out. but we're gonna help him! just as soon as we tell him about his special power."</em>
</p><p>he’s pretty sure most people have mobile dreams. like, dreams that aren’t just frozen images that make no sense or don’t appear to go together in any order. but all he keeps seeing is cushioned white silk lining against a panel of dark wood, someone’s silhouette in a blindingly bright corridor and a pair of all-white eyes, no irises or pupils to speak of. as these images cycle through his mind — over and over, getting faster and faster — a looping soundtrack of distant screams and inhuman shrieks builds into a deafening crescendo. it’s like smashing glass, overlayed and echoing. he can’t make sense of any of it, but it triggers in him a fear so strong and gripping that a sound of his own builds in his chest. it rips out of him, like someone tearing out his throat.</p><p><em>calum</em>.</p><p>he jerks awake, eyes flying open to those same blue ones he'd seen right before dropping off. now, however, he takes note of how they're situated in a super pretty face with dainty features and golden hair. a face, he also notes, with a small black loop in the corner of its mouth.</p><p>okay, enough with the waxing lyrical. how hard had his head hit the ground? </p><p>this dude is seriously gorgeous. probably even prettier than ashton, and calum didn't believe that was possible.</p><p>it's then that he realises his hand is being held. the guy sitting next to him on the unfamiliar bed in this unfamiliar room, smiles softly at him, rubbing a slightly calloused thumb over his knuckles. calum wants to be weirded out, he does, but all he can feel is calm and safe. he hasn't felt like this probably ever in his life, but here, with this beautiful boy, he feels like he never has to worry about anything ever again.</p><p><em>it's my only talent,</em> a soft, musical baritone sounds up in calum's head, followed by a chuckle, <em>but i'm glad it's helping. i'm luke, by the way. i thought i'd found all the freaks on campus, but it turns out there was one more left.</em></p><p><em>who're you calling a freak?</em> calum finds himself thinking back despite having no idea what the fuck is happening. how is this dude talking in his head? where the hell is he? are they anaesthetising him to keep him quiet and compliant?</p><p><em>if you know any australian sign language, i can communicate that way, too? i don't want to make you uncomfortable</em>, luke says, making to let go of his hand, but calum realises he doesn't want that very much.</p><p>holding fast to luke's warm grip, he thinks, <em>as long as you kill me quick, i'm quite good, actually.</em></p><p>luke laughs in his head, smiling outwardly, but it's so bright and angelic that calum feels pretty dazed by it. but the perfect man just keeps up his soothing rubbing of calum's knuckles and his warm, safe presence in calum's head.</p><p>
  <em>i promise we won't kill you. not on purpose, anyway. we really want to help you, actually, if you'll let us. with your haunted house problem, i mean. it's sort of our specialty.</em>
</p><p>regarding him intensely for a moment, calum concludes he isn't lying. how he can even begin to consider any of this with any sanity is beyond him, but he believes luke implicitly.</p><p><em>are you messing with my head? because i genuinely believe you, and also kinda wanna make out with you a little</em>, calum says, knowing he sounds like a drunk person, but not caring very much.</p><p><em>i promise i'm only helping you through the aftershocks of your dream. if it helps, i wouldn't mind making out with you, either. ashton said you were hot, but he also thinks jared leto is hot and not a total space case</em>. luke smiles again, which prompts calum to smile, too.</p><p><em>definitely questionable taste</em>, calum agrees.</p><p>the sound of a door opening jars him a little, but he exhales when it's just mike and ashton. they each pull up a scatter cushion and take a seat on the floor by calum's bedside. mike looks like they'd showered, all the dark makeup off their face and donning only an overlarge band t-shirt. ashton is only wearing sweats, which would be fine by calum as long as he moves a little more into his eye-line.</p><p>"how you feeling?" he asks, then, giving calum a small smile.</p><p>"great. luke is amazing. i don't know what he's doing, but i can definitely get used to it," calum responds, smiling dopily up at the ceiling.</p><p>mike signs something at luke, which calum doesn't follow. he'd had the options of either asl or spanish in high school. he'd opted for spanish, which he definitely regrets now. but then a sliver of a memory comes back to him.</p><p>"but you talked before! i heard you. in the library." he frowns at luke, who looks down at his lap when he's finished shaking his head no at mike's apparent question.</p><p>"there's actually something we need to tell you," mike says, then. "you probably won't believe us, but it's the honest truth. i promise you."</p><p>"okay?" calum says, sitting up.</p><p>luke lets him go, then, but the after effects of whatever he was doing linger. calum pulls his knees up to his chest, feeling suddenly exposed with everyone's eyes on him.</p><p>"luke doesn't speak," mike says. "not because he can't, but because when he does, it tends to be quite… overwhelming? to most people. actually, we haven't ever really met someone who doesn't black out at the sound of it. you did, back in the library."</p><p>luke looks at calum, holding out his hand again as though asking calum if it'd be okay to touch him again. calum twines their fingers together, sighing as luke's calm and soothing presence washes over him again. his extreme confusion almost trumps the blissed out feelings, but luke speaks up, then.</p><p><em>i'm a psychic. i have the ability to manipulate energies inside and outside people, specifically those relating to their mental and emotional states. but i'm also a cypher – an interpreter. any language known to man, i can speak and understand. the reason i don't speak is because, well… my powers are strong. extremely strong. and sometimes i'm a little too good at the manipulation thing…</em> he trails off, but calum can feel his sadness and frustration. he blames himself for something, but calum can barely get a sense of it, nevermind figure out what it is.</p><p>"mike…" ashton starts, reaching out for his friend's hand, but then mike cuddles into his side and presses a kiss to his cheek. ashton smiles down at them. "they're a medium. they commune with the dead. we found them living in an empty share-house at the edge of campus, in a state, thinking they'd been living with about ten other people, but they'd all been dead. just ghosts, continuing about their business, unaware of their death. sort of an occupational hazard for them." ashton runs a hand through their hair gently, adoringly.</p><p>"what about you?" calum finds his voice. "do you turn into a werewolf and consequently have mad footie skills?"</p><p>everyone smiles, luke's laugh in calum's head sending shivers through his body.</p><p>"i was, unfortunately, passed over with the gifts," ashton smiles ruefully. "my mother… she was a medium, too. but she had to go it alone. my stepfather died and he wouldn't leave us alone. she tried to get him to stop… stop hurting us, stop terrorising my little sibs. but he was still too strong. mum died, but she took him with her.</p><p>"i'm pretty sure lauren might have the sight. harry feels things, sort of like luke. but they live with their aunt and uncle. so, i just… i've been teaching myself magic? sort of? it's not like harry potter or anything. but i am gaining certain abilities. i knew about you, so…"</p><p>"he's modest," mike pipes up. "he's actually extremely talented. he can do almost everything we can do, just not in the same way, exactly."</p><p>"so, what? you all use your super special magic powers to hunt ghosts?" calum looks from one face to the next.</p><p>"we do," ashton nods, "and we think you can help us."</p><p>calum frowns. "me? dude, i barely understand my intro to philosophy class. how am i meant to help with ghosts?"</p><p><em>your visions</em>, luke thinks at him. <em>you're like us. </em></p><p>"my <em>visions</em>? sure, i'm like you, if you mean we all enjoy the occasional indulgence in illegal, hallucinogenic substances," calum responds, eyebrows fighting to become one with his hairline.</p><p>"so, you've never seen flashes of things before they happen? or gotten dreams? never just known things without knowing how you know?" ashton's voice is level, but his questions burrow into calum's skull like termites and lay waste to his brain.</p><p>"but doesn't that happen to everyone sometimes? i mean, i've never really thought about it much. didn't know it meant anything. it's not some magical, mystical power! it's just…" </p><p><em>your brain?</em> luke offers, giving him a small smile. <em>that's how it is for all of us, you know. the only one here with 'magical, mystical' power is ash, but he had to teach himself what he knows.</em></p><p>"this is nuts on toast, you all know that?" calum says, eyes sliding over them all again.</p><p>mike gives him a look. "you're preaching to the choir, buddy. but this is your friend and your house. so, either you want them un-haunted or you want us to fuck off. which is it?"</p><p>next to him, luke gives an amused smirk, staring down into his lap before making eye-contact with ashton.</p><p>"i need to think," calum says, taking his hand out of luke's. "alone."</p><p>but this only seems to piss mike off. "what's to think about? you go to all the trouble of making your little instagram account, cry on-screen for your measly following, but you don't believe in ghosts? was this all just for cl—"</p><p>"mikey," ashton intervenes, glaring at his friend.</p><p>"look, you two might be cool with this joke jerking us around, but if he's not taking this seriously, then he can go back to begging for help online. i won't stay and be privy to a death. not me."</p><p>and, with that, they get up off the floor and sweep out of the room, bracelets and earrings jangling in their wake.</p><p>"right," calum says into the loaded silence. "well, thanks for… whatever you want to call this, lads, but i'll be on my way. you two have good lives. tell mike i'm sorry for wasting their time."</p><p>he makes to get up, but luke stops him with a hand to his arm, which he retracts again immediately once he's sure calum isn't planning on running from the room.</p><p>"understand, please," ashton begs, sounding exhausted, "that us telling anyone about ourselves is a sure-fire route to expulsion and then, if we're lucky, a padded cell and a straight-jacket. worst case, they believe us and we get sent to the fucking vatican or something. and your issue is ghosts. dead people. mike is a medium. dead people are sort of their deal, but it's never pleasant. they're not angry at you, but it takes a lot for us to open ourselves up to scrutiny. if you really don't want our help – if you can honestly say you don't believe us, that we have it all wrong about your powers – then we'll leave you alone forever. i'll even quit the team. you'll never see any of us again, i swear. but if there's the slightest chance that we can help you, isn't that worth it? for roy?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"i just want you all to know that i was guilted into this," calum says.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"he's so full of shit," pipes up mike, at the camera. "we gave him so many outs." they turn to face him. "i can't believe you thought we would actually let someone die. what the fuck, dude?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"don't talk to me! you were the one banging on about being 'privy to death'. what was it they called me?" calum asks luke, who is sitting on the other side of him.</em>
</p><p>a joke<em>, luke signs, eyes averted.</em></p><p>
  <em>"hey!" mike yells, leaning over to glare at luke. "whose side are you on?" </em>
</p><p>whichever one shuts down your stupid bickering and helps cal's friend.</p><p>
  <em>"fair enough," mike nods and leans back, but not before eyeing calum. "you wanna give your rapidly inclining following an update? by the way, i still maintain you all joined the ride after the rest of us came on here earlier. in which case, you're all welcome."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"i liked you better when you were moody and distant," calum surmises, giving mike a blank look.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"me too," mike admits, staring down into their lap, their teal fringe falling forward to obscure their eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"emotional admissions of self-loathing aside," calum says, turning back to face the camera, "we're going to spend a night in the house tonight. or as long as we can manage." calum points a thumb at mike. "they're scared of the dark—"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"you're cruising for a bruising," they threaten, glaring at calum in a way that has him both scared and a little hot.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"yeah. wildly inaccurate, mate," puts in ashton, who refuses to be on-screen. "we all know the one afraid of the dark here is me. i even still have a nightlight."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"you're all losers," calum decides. "anyway, i am recording our entire venture tonight. if any of us die, know we are going there of our own free will and that ghosts suck. also, tell my sister that i love her and my parents that i'm still queer as fuck. see you freaks later."</em>
</p><p>ashton stands on the sidewalk, staring up at the house like it's speaking to him. all of them watch on, quietly letting him size the place up. a violent shiver wracks through him, suddenly, and luke goes over to grab hold of him, but he throws out an arm to keep him away.</p><p>calum catches a glimpse of his eyes, then, and it makes the air die in his lungs. instead of their usual hazel, ashton's eyes are cloudy white, like marbles, entirely without pupils or irises. he continues shaking violently for another minute, which honestly feels like it lasts an hour, and all the rest of them do is make sure no one passes by the house close enough to see him.</p><p>"this house," ashton gasps, finally, his voice seeming to come from deep within him, "isn't haunted – it's <em>infected</em>."</p><p>mike's expression goes from quietly fearful to livid to terrified all in the span of three seconds. luke, on the other hand, wraps his arms around himself and pushes on, up the short walkway to the door.</p><p>all the while, calum is absolutely losing it. he remembers his dream. those eyes… ashton's eyes.</p><p>
  <em>"your visions. you're like us."</em>
</p><p><em>am i?</em> calum wonders. <em>am i just like them, burdened with this inexplicable power and this duty to do good, regardless of my own wellbeing?</em></p><p>he shudders involuntarily as he crosses the threshold, his hands tightening their grip on the straps of his backpack.</p><p>"i don't like it here," mike announces. they barely whisper, but the house is so quiet, the outside world almost entirely muted, that they may as well have yelled it.</p><p>"i'll set up wards as soon as we pick a room to sleep in. does the electricity still work?" ashton asks luke, who's close to lightswitch.</p><p>"why wouldn't the electricity work? it's not like the place has been foreclosed—"</p><p>but calum cuts himself off when luke flips the switch and nothing happens. he wanders over to the tv and reaches out to try it, but calum is across the room in two steps and grabs his hand.</p><p><em>that's how the got roy before,</em> he warns in luke's head. <em>they like the tv, for some reason.</em></p><p><em>then, i'm pretty sure we can rule out all power except for the tv. is there another set or is this it?</em> luke asks, taking his hand away from the tv, but letting his fingers slip between calum's.</p><p>
  <em>there's another one in my room. roy and i used it for gaming. why?</em>
</p><p><em>get ash's attention for me?</em> luke asks.</p><p>"ash," calum says, feeling oddly empty again as luke lets go of his hand.</p><p>ashton looks over at them and luke begins signing furiously, a slight tremor to his arms. at first, calum thinks it's fear, but then he notices a delicate filigree of what look like branches snake their way down luke's arms and to his fingertips as he signs, utterly transfixing calum – and, suddenly, calum understands.</p><p>
  <em>…will have to spend the night in calum's room, too. i don't like being apart from either of you, but we can't give these things any form of a gap. not if we want to survive this. i've never felt energy this twisted and awful before. </em>
</p><p>"so, we're essentially trapping ourselves in rooms with whatever these things are?" ashton verifies, even his voice sounding dreamy.</p><p>luke nods solemnly.</p><p>"i don't like this," calum finds his voice, despite being unable to tear his eyes away from luke. </p><p>he looks like it'd taken it out of him to sign just then. the almost lacy pattern of leafless branches still glow faintly on his skin, but his jaw appears to be working against something unseen, like he's tensing himself against something.</p><p>"promise none of us are very thrilled to be here," mike says, and they sound just fine, until they turn to luke and seem to get hit with something, something that dazes them as well. "lukey?"</p><p>"why do you keep saying 'whatever these things are'? i thought they were ghosts." calum forces out and tries to force his eyes away from luke.</p><p><em>they're not ghosts</em>, luke signs. <em>not even close. ghosts don't have this much energy.</em></p><p>"he's right. whatever we're facing in this house, it's not ghosts," ashton says.</p><p>"super reassuring, guys, thank you," calum manages when luke wanders out of the room.</p><p>he'd very much like an explanation for what just happened, for those markings on luke's arms, but he can't bring himself to stop seeing how hard luke was fighting to keep them away. the strain on him must've been incredible.</p><p>"so, who's bunking where?" mike wants to know, playing with their fringe nervously, alternating between smoothing it down over their eyebrow piercing and messing it up artfully.</p><p>"i think smartest would be for me to bunk with calum. i'm not as vulnerable as either of you, and you both have a way better handle on your powers than he does. i'll ward you both before we go up there," ashton says, sounding decidedly calm and unafraid.</p><p>calum can't tell if he loves him or hates him for it.</p><p>"listen, wouldn't it be safer to come back during the day?" calum asks, then, tremor in his voice be damned. "i don't like all this talk of unknowns and wards and dark energy. in the daylight, we can scope out the place and still have emergency services here in five minutes if we need them. i can't… what happened to roy… it can't happen to you too."</p><p>surprising literally everyone, it's mike who speaks up, coming forward to lay a comforting hand on calum's hoodie sleeve. it's then that calum realises he's crying, but mike swipes at the tears with their sleeve, keeping their voice steady and true as they talk.</p><p>"i know you're scared. we're all scared. but this is the right way to do it. the only way. and to think, you survived here on your own for how long… it was always going to get worse than a few ghosts eventually. but as long as we keep our wits about us, they won't get in. they won't."</p><p>they give both ashton and luke a pointed look, one that makes them both nod determinedly.</p><p>"ashton's got you. you couldn't be safer," mike smiles at calum. "but my advice? lean into your gift. let it guide you. it's part of your instincts now. don't shut it out."</p><p>and now it's calum's turn to nod. he doesn't have a single clue how he's meant to 'lean into [his] gift', but they sound so convincing saying it, and if their anger turns calum on, then their kindness makes him strong. he smiles back one last time before leading ashton upstairs to show him the bedroom.</p><p>"you know what's miserable?" calum grumbles as they climb the stupid creaky stairs in this stupid haunted house.</p><p>"i'm gonna go out on a limb and say i probably don't," ashton replies, tracing a light finger along the banister, before switching hands and trailing his finger along the ugly, patterned wallpaper.</p><p>"i haven't even had a chance to break in the bed. if nothing, these fucking things are at least a cock-block," calum laments as they reach the next floor.</p><p>to their left, the corridor disappears into shadow, but calum knows roy's room and their music room are both that way, not that he'd dare go back for any of their instruments now. to their right, along a very short corridor, is calum's room. the door is gaping open like someone just went through it, like roy went ahead to fire up the xbox with calum just two steps behind, toting the snacks for their weekend-long gaming session. he forces away the urge to be sick, knowing it won't help anything, and instead uses this as incentive to be more determined. they will save roy.</p><p>"look, i'm all for taking it where i can get it with hot guys, but isn't this a bit odd of a time to talk me up for sex?" ashton says, then, serving the dual purpose of scaring calum out of skin and humiliating him the rest of the way to death.</p><p>"no! i wasn't… i mean, the point wasn't to—" </p><p>but ashton is chuckling to himself. "relax, mate, i'm fucking with you. or, well, i wish i was."</p><p>he wanders past calum through the open door, leaving calum to consider rather seriously throwing himself back down the stairs.</p><p>"yo, what in the paranormal occurrence is this shit?"</p><p>frowning, calum goes to see what he's talking about. he finds ashton on his knees on the floor, almost in the exact place where roy had collapsed that night. there's a wet patch of something on the carpet, which has ashton intrigued. he keeps dipping his fingers into it and then rubbing them together, seemingly baffled at the texture.</p><p>"that stuff…" calum shudders at the memory. "it came out of roy. leaked out of his ears and mouth and nose. i tried not to touch too much of it, but it was hot back then."</p><p>"it still is…" ashton murmurs. he sets down his backpack, then, and begins digging through it, searching for something. a moment later, he tugs a small, rectangular device free, while a blanket and towel spill out along with his reemerging hand. he either doesn't notice or doesn't care.</p><p>when he switches on the little device, it starts making a noise like a geiger counter, which is interesting, particularly when that noise intensifies in close proximity with the jelly-ish clear fluid.</p><p>"holy fuck," ashton mutters.</p><p>he puts the device down next to the wet spot on the carpet, where it continues to tick frantically. then, he does something super weird, in calum's opinion: he slips his jacket off and starts shoving up the sleeve of his shirt until it's bunched up just above his elbow.</p><p>"cal, c'mere a sec?" he asks, then, eyes glued to the dark discolouration on the blue carpeting.</p><p>dumping his bag on the bed, calum goes closer tentatively. he's not entirely sure what ashton needs him for, but he's getting that weird prickly feeling on the back of his neck again. the feeling that usually signals—</p><p>just like that, he's gone. the room around him melts away until all he seems to be staring at is another picture, another movie still from a film that doesn't exist yet, another feeling building in his chest that he can't control, but that scares him out of his mind. except, it's a photo under flickering lights, and every time the image becomes visible he notices another terrifying detail: first, he sees hands reaching up for the light, stretching impossibly for just a speck of brightness in the dark, and then it's the tormented faces, misery and grief and agony etched into every feature, even the bottomless, white eyes that look so much like tv static… he stops looking. he can't anymore. he tries to shut his eyes and shut it all out, but it doesn't work. he can't come back, he can't save ashton. they're all going to die in this house.</p><p>
  <em>calum!</em>
</p><p>he's screaming himself awake again, but this time it's to two pairs of strong arms trying to pry him away from something – from ashton, where he's cowering in the corner, arms over his head to protect himself.</p><p>"calum?"</p><p>"luke?"</p><p>he straightens himself out. in the silence, the only audible thing is ashton's panicked breathing. as luke and mike's hands fall from calum's body, calum finds himself whimpering, and then fresh tears are spilling down his face.</p><p>"ashton?" he sobs, his voice high-pitched and watery. "ash? i'm so sorry. i don't know what happened. i'm s-so, so sorry…"</p><p>"we have to get out of this house," mike says, their voice warbled and disjointed.</p><p>"yeah," ashton agrees. "we have to go… to roy."</p><p>this almost stops calum's tears dead in their tracks. "t-to roy?"</p><p>"whatever just took you away is taking him away, too," ashton says, gently. his eyes are big and worried in a face that seems to have aged ten years since setting foot in this accursed building.</p><p>"i'm so sorry, ash," calum whispers again, tears once again burning their way down his face.</p><p>"oh, baby," ashton manages, before tears are spilling down his cheeks, too.</p><p>he pulls calum in for a hug, his strong, solid warmth thawing out a part of calum he hadn't been aware was frozen. the only feeling he can register with any sense of clarity is despair. maybe his friends are right: they need to get out of this house.</p><p>"we should go," calum says, gently disentangling himself from ashton, but keeping a definite grip on his hand.</p><p>"right behind you," luke says – out loud.</p><p>"uhhhhhh… what?" calum says intelligently.</p><p>"it's the house," luke says, practically glowing purple. "it's trying to feed off me. i can't keep it out so well."</p><p>"yeah, i count that as incentive," mike assesses, leading the way out of calum's room, down the stairs and out the front door. </p><p>calum expects some kind of resistance, like the house won't let them leave, but what they find outside is far more bizarre.</p><p>"check your phones," mike says, fishing theirs out of their pocket.</p><p>"mine's dead," ashton says, wailing on the unlock button.</p><p>"mine too," calum groans.</p><p>luke holds up his to reveal the same thing.</p><p>"so, what? we were just somehow in there all night?" ashton says, turning to stare at the house again.</p><p>around them, the day is in full swing, the sounds from campus clearly audible from where they're standing. if calum has to judge by the sun's position, he'd say it's probably afternoon already.</p><p>"i'm tired," he announces, holding onto his backpack straps like they're a lifeline. "if we're gonna go see roy, i want caffeine and food."</p><p>"then, let's regroup first before we just head off to the hospital," ashton suggests.</p><p>they end up piling into an on-campus café, only to see how full it is, which has them tramping back out to one of the smaller tables. luke and mike grab themselves a chair each and they huddle around the tiny surface, looking like reanimated corpses. well, except it suits the others, in their all-black and penchant for misery. calum, in his light grey t-shirt and blue jeans, looks like the outcast main character the goths have been forced to babysit. honestly, he feels that way, too.</p><p>"so, what do we know?" he asks, after the waitress had brought everyone a steaming mug of something caffeinated. luke's is the most heinous, topped with mounds of cream.</p><p>mike flips open their backpack and pulls out their sketch book, inside which is tucked the ornate hand mirror they'd had back in the library, and a pencil. on the open page, calum sees the same nightmarish figures he'd seen in his vision back in the house, and it makes him burn his tongue on his coffee. in a fit, he knocks over the mug and sends it crashing to the ground.</p><p>"hey, hey," ashton says, foregoing cleaning up the pavement beneath them for pulling calum to him. he speaks quietly in calum's ear, rubbing his back soothingly. "i know all this is overwhelming, babe, but you can't let it win out like this. this ability you have – you control it. it does not control you, yeah? i promise it'll be alright. but you have to let us in. you have to let us help you. you're one of us now, and the only way we've survived this long has been together."</p><p>calum lets himself cuddle into ash's side while mike orders him a refill. ashton keeps him close and safe, and keeps up his soothing petting and light fingers on calum's back. luke, who seems to be back to normal and void of all purple, holds out a hand for calum to take. he does so gratefully, sighing in relief at the flood of calm that washes over him.</p><p>maybe being one of them isn't such a bad thing, he finds himself thinking.</p><p><em>we like you, you know?</em> luke adds. <em>mike, too, if you can believe it. though, theirs might have something to do with them not feeling like the most fucked up one in the group anymore.</em></p><p><em>you know what? i'll take it</em>, calum chuckles internally. </p><p><em>thatta boy</em>, luke commends.</p><p>"you saw them, too?" mike asks, quietly, scratching away at their sketch with their pencil, their shoulders slumped forward. it doesn't really look like they're seeing what's on the page, though. no, their eyes look like they're staring at something a million miles away. "they're so… sad. you'd think they'd be angry, but they just…"</p><p>"they just want out," calum finishes, mind drifting, too. "they're stuck there, and they just want to leave. something is trapping them there."</p><p>"could you… get a sense of them at all?" ashton asks, eyes carefully scrutinising mike's face.</p><p>"they didn't want to talk," is all they reply.</p><p>ash turns his gaze to luke, like he's meant to have the answers mike can't provide.</p><p><em>empty. all i felt was empty</em>, luke thinks in calum's head. </p><p>he grips luke's hand a little tighter, resisting his sudden urge to bring it to his lips and kiss it.</p><p>"empty," calum translates, instead.</p><p>"then, i propose we hit the books – after we visit roy. mikes, you don't have to come to the library with us if you don't want to," ashton says.</p><p>"what? hang back alone? are you insane? i don't even know how the hell i'm sleeping tonight." </p><p>someone's phone vibrates, bringing them all back to the real world around them, a world where ghosts and the supernatural are the last things people worry about. it's luke's. he reads the screen and then drops it on the tabletop to drop his face into his hand. mike grabs up the device, frowning.</p><p>"oh… bummer," they say, looking sad for luke. to the rest of them, they say, "he missed a submission date for a music tech assignment. he's out of the course."</p><p>letting go of calum's hand, luke signs, <em>kill me</em>.</p><p>"my dad's a doctor. i can forge you a note?" calum offers, not moving out of the warmth of ashton's side. </p><p>"woah. are you kidding?" mike asks.</p><p>"no. i don't talk to my dad. i just always steal one of his prescription pads when i gotta go over there for christmas. i can fake his signature and everything."</p><p>luke gets to his feet and rounds the table to calum, where he hunches down to press a soft, lingering kiss to calum's cheek. calum, to his credit, does not blush. he's totally been kissed by hot guys before. they were mali's boyfriends at the time, but still. he does, however, swoon a bit, which he hopes no one notices.</p><p>yeah, no such luck.</p><p>"oh, he's ours now," mike grins, their black painted lips looking that much sexier in a smile. "luke's gone and done it."</p><p>"i was already yours, mikey," calum retaliates, smirking. "your utter disdain of me has gotten me hotter than any of luke's kindness and ashton's shameless flirting ever could."</p><p>"die," mike responds.</p><p>"marry me?" calum volleys.</p><p>mike promptly gets up from their seat, dumps a bill on the table and stalks off.</p><p>"where have you been all our lives?" ashton asks, voice awed as he stares after his pissed off goth of a friend, er… partner? whatever.</p><p>"decidedly not tangled up in paranormal mysteries."</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"hey, all. just me again. hope we haven't lost too many of you."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>calum pauses thoughtfully for a moment, but then he's grinning from ear to ear.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"i'm just fucking with you all. you're all eating this shit up. our numbers are rising by the day. which, good job hanging in. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"i actually came on to show you something concrete tonight. call it 'ghostbusters behind the scenes'. and this actually wasn't even my idea, but i hope all you dicks leaving shitty comments or sending hateful DMs get a load of this and stop calling us liars. this shit isn't funny and i am terrified as fuck.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"so, stick around for a few videos, i guess." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>exactly three videos are uploaded. the first shows luke and ashton standing across from each other across the kitchen. luke is holding a can of beans in his one hand. staring at it, his eyes flash purple for a second and then suddenly the can is rising into the air to levitate in front of his face. with nothing more than a glance over at ashton, the can goes rocketing through the air, only to stop dead in front of ashton to levitate once more. there's no purple flash in ashton's case, but he does have to use more of his body to do what luke seems to do without effort. with a smirk at luke, ashton makes a wrenching motion in the air with his hands. just like that, the can comes apart. there's a cheer off-camera.</em>
</p><p><em>the second video is creepy, to say the least. in it, mike is sitting cross-legged on the floor of a dark, nondescript room. in their left hand, they're holding the ornate, silver hand mirror. half their face is visible in it, but the eye visible on-camera is entirely purple, like a faintly glowing shell. this isn't even the creepiest part, however. no, the most terrifying are the shadows – the dark, humanoid shapes moving in the mirror behind their reflection. all the while, their right hand is scratching out these shapes on a drawing pad next to them: half-destroyed shadow-</em> <em>people with faces contorted in agony, dragging limbs through the dark as thick as snow. some of them come up to mike to whisper in their ear, fragments they writes down that make no sense and some aren't even english. the camera zooms in on the mirror, right as it goes flying across the room to shatter against an invisible wall. mike's scream is cut short by the video ending.</em></p><p>
  <em>oddly enough, it's not calum's eyes that glow purple, but his temples. they send spider-like veins of lilac bleeding into intense violet all along his jawline and cheekbones. his eyes, to their credit, roll back into their sockets until they appear to be nothing but milky white marbles. for all intents and purposes, utterly terrifying.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>and he is reaching, gesturing, muttering soundlessly at things and people that aren't there – yet. his reaching is into the future, fear and horror etched into every line of his face that isn't glowing some shade of purple. surreality and anticipation become tangible things around calum.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>the video jerks in what is obviously shock, when calum starts screaming. the luminous cracks in his facade shine beaconlike as he jumps to his feet, before contorting inhumanly. luke and ashton run on-screen, both reaching for a wildly thrashing calum, while mike screams his name over and over.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>finally, luke gets his hands on calum and, with a great purple flash, the video comes to an abrupt end.</em>
</p><p>when ashton comes back with the coffee, it's decaf and calum feels himself die inside.</p><p>"i didn't give you that much money for coffee for you not to get starbucks. what the fuck am i supposed to do with decaf?" he snaps, getting to his feet.</p><p>"i just thought, since we've been up for almost two days—" </p><p>"yeah, that's your problem," calum cuts him off. "you thought."</p><p>he stomps for the door of the study space they've been renting. turns out, mike's parents are rich as shit and basically own the university. not that mike is really open to talking about their family much. in any event, they booked this room for calum and ashton to do research in indefinitely, which means it's basically become their temporary home, since the library is open 24/7.</p><p>"calum," ashton says, sounding stern. right now, none of it is hot. calum is tired and annoyed. he just needs everyone to shut up. "cal, look, i'm sorry, okay? but you need to sleep. we both do. you keep slipping away and i'm not luke. i can't keep bringing you back. i don't have it in me."</p><p>sighing, calum slumps back against the wall, dropping his face into his hand. without looking up, he knows ashton has all but closed the space between them and calum can't help but revel in all the alone time they've had up until now. how nothing has happened yet is beyond him. when draws his hand back, ashton is right there, close enough to kiss – and, fuck, does calum want to.</p><p>"come on," ashton says, reaching for calum's hand. "we can go crash in my dorm room."</p><p>"you have a dorm room?" calum asks, peering into ashton's pretty hazel eyes.</p><p>"here on scholarship," is the only explanation calum gets before ashton is dragging them both through the door –</p><p>and right into calum's head. this time, he feels them before he sees them. they all look like shadows, oppressive and dark, their eyes glowing in their heads, and they mean them nothing but harm. right before the door slams shut, trapping calum in his own mind again, he jerks himself back and ashton to a halt.</p><p>"we can't go through here. we can't. we have to go out the back. we—"</p><p>ashton jerks his head this way and that, but doesn't see what is burned into calum's retinas. can't.</p><p>"woah. slow down, cal. what's up?" ashton says, gently.</p><p>"they're going to see us. they're gonna see us and try to kill us—" </p><p>"who?" ash presses, putting grounding hands on either side of calum's face.</p><p>"<em>everyone</em>!"</p><p>"calum hood."</p><p>they both jump, turning as they do. there, at the top of the stairs, stands jones and all the other seniors from the footie team. they don't look cocky now. to calum, they look like vipers, ready to strike.</p><p>"ah, yes, and bitch boy irwin," jones continues. there's no mistaking the edge of disgust in his voice. "figures you two freaks would shack up. what, do you fuck in graveyards after some ouija board foreplay? what the fuck is that shit you posted online?"</p><p>"what the fuck is it to you?" ashton spits at him, not looking the least bit intimidated. in fact, he looks like he'd quite enjoy bashing jones' skull into the banister.</p><p>"what is wrong with you? these freaks, hood and those two emos you hang out with, they can't help they're demonic cocksuckers, but you? why would you choose this? if you're that desperate to get laid—" </p><p>jones goes crashing backwards, through his teammates, sending half of them to the floor, too. for a moment, all that can be heard is shocked silence, like the entire library is holding its breath. next to calum, ashton is vibrating with rage. there's a weird, rippling force surrounding his closed fists.</p><p>telekinetic energy. </p><p>calum is suddenly less scared of jones and more scared for him.</p><p>"ash?" he keeps his voice low, level. what he really wants to do is put a hand to ashton's arm, but he doesn't know what that could mean for him. not when both their powers are volatile like this.</p><p>"enough," ashton murmurs. "<em>enough</em>."</p><p>he marches right over to jones' group, hoisting the aforementioned into the air, not a hand on him.</p><p>"think you're a big man?" ashton sneers. "think your pathetic fucking football captaincy makes you hot shit? i could wipe the floor with you – without my magic. it's just more fun to see the piss run down your leg."</p><p>he's absolutely fearsome, his hair billowing off his face and his voice taking on a double timbre as he casually mocks the other man, hands in his pockets. he smirks cruelly up at jones, who looks scared and defiant, and calum has never been more attracted to another human being.</p><p>"now, you can say about me whatever the fuck you like. i can sort you out. but the others? you – or anyone – comes near cal, luke or mikey again and i total you like your daddy's hummer in that maccas parking last year."</p><p>the entire library has come to see their little spectacle. so many phones are out and pointed at ashton, who still has jones levitated off the ground. all jones' friends have retreated, leaving him at ashton's mercy.</p><p>is it weird that calum kind of envies him? god, he needs his head checked.</p><p>and somehow it's like it's clicked for calum. his power. without sucking him in, he gets a flash in his head, a picture of uniforms coming through the library door in… two minutes.</p><p>"ash, campus security!" he calls out.</p><p>dropping jones and getting back behind the locked door of the study room is one swift motion for him. calum follows suit, immediately beginning to pack up their stuff.</p><p>"take the books!" ashton unlocks the service door in the back corner with a flick of his hand. "luke could probably have done this cleaner, but the way i see it, i'm already expelled."</p><p>"mr. irwin!" an unfamiliar voice calls through the door, twisting the knob, but even if he had a key, calum doesn't see him unlocking that door anytime soon. "mr. irwin, you have to come with us! resisting only guarantees expulsion!"</p><p>"i'm not resisting!" ashton calls back, slinging his backpack onto his back. "i'm just needed elsewhere at present. promise to pop by as soon as i close up a dark pitfall to purgatory!"</p><p>grabbing calum's hand, ashton has them dashing down the service stairs at an inhuman speed. distantly, calum hears the service door slam shut. the echoes follow them down to their alley-exit.</p><p>““promise to pop by as soon as i close up ia dark pitfall to purgatory!”,” calum mocks ashton, laughing as they run. “are all goths this dramatic?”</p><p>“i just saved you from expulsion by association,” ashton gets out, ducking them down another random alley as sirens start up far too close for comfort. “some gratitude would be appreciated.”</p><p>they head around a corner into what appears to be a severely underused loading area. it has the feel of something that’s been standing empty for at least a few months. even the puddle water smells stagnant. </p><p>this is perfect.</p><p>“gratitude, yeah?” calum murmurs, but it’s so quiet here he may as well have shouted. “bet i could show you just how grateful i am.”</p><p>“i- yeah?” ashton says, voice suddenly hoarse at the look on calum’s face.</p><p>but calum is chuckling to himself. “so, you can kick ass, but flounder in the face of proffered head? you’re an enigma, ashton irwin.”</p><p>“enigma is my middle name,” ashton barely gets out as calum pushes him back against the gruff brick wall. he looks like he expects calum to kiss him, but it’s definitely not the guy’s intention to make sweet, tender love to ashton in a rank ass loading bay.</p><p>so, he just tries to keep his legs under him as calum sinks to his knees and undoes his pants, looking absolutely obscene as he licks his lips in anticipation of what’s making the rather prominent bulge in ashton’s jeans. and it should matter that they’re outside, running from the cops (well, campus security), basically on the verge of expulsion and are currently very much out as the biggest freaks at the university, but all the blood in ashton’s body is currently traveling to a very specific region, spurred on to go faster by calum’s hand on his exposed skin, leaving ash a little lightheaded.</p><p>“god, watching you beat up jones got me so hard,” calum says, voice low and full of want. “took everything i had not to pop a boner right there in the library.”</p><p>“think jones felt the same, honestl— <em>f-fuck</em>,” ashon chokes out as calum sucks the head of his cock into his mouth.</p><p>he runs his tongue over the slit a few times, causing ashton to whine at the sensation, before it turns into a whine of protest as calum pops off and goes back to using his hand.</p><p>“i actually saw this coming,” he shares casually, running a tantalising finger along the underside of ashton’s cock.</p><p>he shivers as he responds, “did you now?”</p><p>“about two days ago, i fell asleep for, like, an hour, while you went to go meet up with luke to visit roy. i dreamt of this. except… well, you were a little more <em>assertive</em>.”</p><p>ashton, who has been growing steadily more annoyed with calum’s slow progress when he’s so pent up, uses this confession as an opportunity. he gets a good grip on the back of calum’s hair.</p><p>“have it your way, then,” he says, staring down his nose at the suddenly doe-eyed boy. “if you use your hands again, i’m tying them down. you wanna suck dick in an alley? you better be willing to go hard, hood.”</p><p>“yes, sir.” calum gives a wry smile before tonguing ashton’s dick back into his mouth.</p><p>he starts off slow again, but only because he seems to be trying to work out exactly what he’s working with. he starts at the tip again, swirling his way down leisurely, like he’s just genuinely enjoying himself. the blissed out look on his face is it for ashton and suddenly he’s so hard his grip on calum’s hair tightens involuntarily. reacting in kind, calum takes him all the way in, right into his throat, making ashton cuss viciously.</p><p>“<em>fuck</em>, babe, you can’t do this to me here! what if they hear us? you want campus security to find us with my dick down your throat?” ashton pulls out slowly, but calum isn’t having it.</p><p>he practically pleads with his eyes, leaning forward to slip ashton right back between his lips. he sucks hard enough to hollow out his cheeks, sending a violent shiver up ashton’s spine. his knees buckle.</p><p>“okay, baby. <em>jesus fuck</em>— have it your way, yeah?” ashton relents, his hips ticking forward involuntarily when calum sucks again. and then he decides that that’s exactly what he’s going to do - and drives his hips forward in earnest.</p><p>calum hums contentedly, bracing himself against ashton’s legs and relaxing his jaw entirely. ashton drives forward again, starting to slip right off the edge at the tight, hot wetness of calum’s throat, unable to think of anything except driving into it again and again. and calum isn’t just taking it. he moans around ashton like he’s getting off just as much, despite neither of them being anywhere near calum’s dick. but ashton is getting very close to not caring about anything much beyond the heat pooling in his stomach. throwing his head back, he fucks forward in earnest, his muscles shaking with exertion and anticipation. </p><p>then, right as he’s about to go flying over the edge, calum stops his forward motion and sucks on him like he’s trying to get the last drop of milkshake at the bottom of the glass. ashton comes with a shout, the orgasm practically exploding out of him. calum does not stop sucking, keen to get every last drop of cum ashton can muster right then. it’s only as he’s starting to come down that ashton notices how calum is quivering, but he only gets why when he’s pulling out.</p><p>the front of calum’s shorts are drenched, his muscles relaxed and satiated. making ashton cum that hard had literally been what had done it for calum. another sharp jab of pleasure shoots its way up ashton’s spine, making his dick twitch half-heartedly.</p><p>“not a word about this,” calum threatens, his voice hoarse and raw and used. “i swear to fuck, i will kill you in your sleep. you keep this to yourself, you hear me?”</p><p>“our dirty little secret,” ashton chuckles slightly. he’s quiet for a beat, but then he can’t help but add, “you’re extremely hot like that, did you know?”</p><p>“i look like a fucking twink slut.” calum gets to his feet, staring forlornly down at himself. he pulls his hoodie over his head and ties it around his narrow waist, letting the sleeves dangle down the front to cover most of the evidence.</p><p>“you’re delusional. i used to go trolling for twinks and none of them are even remotely on your level. you get me hot just talking sometimes,” ashton admits. he slips his, much baggier, shirt over his head and passes it off to calum.</p><p>calum gives him a soft look, before smiling something adorable. “if you break my heart, irwin, it’s really going to suck. for you. the last dude who fucked me over got his dick pick stuck up all over school.”</p><p>“you honestly think that’d really do me damage?” ashton asks, taking calum’s shirt from him and putting it on.</p><p>“size-wise? no. but if i tell them you’re a never-hard, it could make things awkward for you.”</p><p>“but that’s not true!” ashton protests.</p><p>“the truth never ever matters if the rumour is juicy enough, babe.” satisfied with his appearance, calum heads back for the alley they’d come down.</p><p>“you’re pure evil. you might be one of us after all,” ashton decides, looking a little apprehensively at the back of calum’s retreating head before following.</p><p>“stay close to me,” calum says without turning.</p><p>the two of them take off running back up the alley.</p><p>getting home was the easy part. suddenly, calum’s gift is no longer something to overcome, something he fears will overwhelm him. it’s instinctual, the same way luke and mike’s are. it’s incredible to see how he just makes these split-second decisions like he knows exactly what he’s doing. he also seems far more relaxed than he’s been since they met him.</p><p>but, yeah - that was the easy part. the hard part comes in the form of the front door slamming open and angry footsteps thumping into the living room, where they’re working on luke balancing their energies and his own enough to be able to speak verbally. it’s meant to serve as an exercise for when they go cleanse the house, where luke keeps the supernatural energy in check enough for mike to step into the realm of the dead, or whatever, without it keeping them there.</p><p>“and what the fuck is this?” a voice booms them out of their delicate balance.</p><p>luke jumps so hard that he lets out a small whimper that lodges like a knife between calum’s ribs. a quick glance around reveals ashton and mike having similar reactions. luke’s emotions are so potent.</p><p>“dad,” mike says, their voice a monotone.</p><p>calum looks between the angry, large man and mike and tries to put the two of them together, but where mike is all fine, delicate pen strokes, their father is the large, bold, angry brushstrokes of an artist who had either hated their subject or the project overall. there is nothing of mike’s artistic thoughtfulness in this man. they share an eye-colour, but that’s about as far as the resemblance goes.</p><p>“i told you when your mother and i sorted out that absolute fiasco at the boarding house that you’re on thin ice. all we asked is that you keep your nose clean, kept a low profile - didn’t cause any more trouble. instead, you went and did the complete opposite. and now you’re harbouring two fugitives?” his words might not be too harsh, but mike’s father’s tone could cut diamonds. there’s no love there for his child. the man sounds like he’s speaking to an exasperating pet.</p><p>“fugitives, dad, really?” mike returns, tone just as void of fondness as their father’s. “bit dramatic, don’t you think?”</p><p>“he beat up the captain of the uni footie team!” mr. clifford gestures vaguely in ashton’s direction, like the last thing he could possibly want is to acknowledge him.</p><p>“jones was a piss poor captain,” ashton defends himself, then, “and a raging asshole to boot. if i hadn’t done what i did, he and his mongrels definitely would’ve at least tried to put me and cal in the hospital. and that would’ve left luke and mike wide open!”</p><p>“he used magic, michael,” mr. clifford continues, as though ashton hadn’t spoken at all.</p><p>“so, your issue isn’t actually the fact that there was a fight? your problem is with the fact that ashton used magic. makes perfect sense now, actually. a physical altercation you could still have argued away with the board, but now you’ll have to have the uncomfortable conversation about magic being real, and fuck forbid that happens. suddenly regretting you didn’t just shove me in the nuthouse like nan?” mike challenges, not appearing even a smidgeon scared.</p><p>“<em>WHY MUST YOU LIVE TO BE SUCH A COMPLETE EMBARRASSMENT? WHAT DID YOUR MOTHER AND I EVER DO TO DESERVE THIS? HAVE WE NOT PROVIDED YOU WITH EVERY-FUCKING-THING YOU COULD EVER HAVE ASKED FOR?</em>” mr. clifford has officially lost his shit. spit flies as he absolutely screams at mike.</p><p>his rage is short-lived, however, when ashton and calum step between him and his child. calum hasn’t felt rage this intense since he was fifteen and mali called him, crying, because some asshole at a party had tried his luck a little too much. </p><p>“without even a bit of respect, i’d take a walk right now, sir, before i total you in your own fucking house for screaming at mikey like that,” calum threatens, his voice low and deadly.</p><p>“and you think you have a leg to stand on? you’re lucky i haven’t had you expelled, you little shit,” mr. clifford sneers at calum.</p><p>next to him, ashton looks ready to send the older man through a wall, but calum has never really been the kind of person to have other people fight his battles for him - not if he’s capable of fighting them himself.</p><p>“you think i’m scared of some fucking bureaucrat? you and your money and your pretentious title can kiss my ass,” calum leans in to say right in his face. in his periphery, he sees mr. clifford’s hand curl into a fist, which has him adding, “i can assure you, if your plan is to start throwing punches, there is no way that ends well for you.”</p><p>eyes fixed on calum’s, mike’s father speaks in a totally neutral tone, “irwin, you have a hearing in two days. if found guilty, your penalty is expulsion.”</p><p>and with that, he shoves past calum and leaves back up the corridor, slamming the front door shut behind him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“…and then he hoisted me into the air—”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“without touching you…?” the head of the disciplinary committee verifies.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“y-yes,” jones stammers, mildly disoriented at the interruption.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“with ‘magic’?” the air-quotes are so heavily implied that at least three of the committee snort and the others sit back in their seats, in varying states of amusement.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“there’s footage! there’s a video on the internet!” jones protests, jumping to his feet.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“a video on the internet is supposed to be a credible source nowadays, is it?” the chairman asks, tone still wry. “yet here you stand, not so much as a bruise on you.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“the library has cctv!” jones tries again. a valiant effort, really. “surely you’ll believe your own security system?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“conveniently, the library’s cameras were down for maintenance. and so far no one has come forward to defend you - not even your teammates. so, why don’t we get to the point, mr. jones?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>jones retakes his seat in front of the committee, looking utterly miserable, right next to a blank-faced ashton (who is utterly stunning in a black suit). the camera flips away from them to reveal luke. with a quick smirk, he winks at the screen and the video ends.</em>
</p><p>calum has his arms wrapped around luke’s neck, pressing their bodies flush together. luke’s arms are draped loosely around calum’s hips. he’s using their proximity to talk to calum, while also making calum a little weak at the knees with how solid his body feels against calum’s.</p><p>
  <em>you and mikey’ll be fine. just let them come to you. they like you, they just don’t like being crowded. and if you need anything, ash and i are a text away.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>i’ll miss you both. why do you have to leave? why can’t you just prep for trial here?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>because ash has to look like he still gives a shit about his scholarship, and mike’s father can’t be implicated. he’s given them enough shit.</em>
</p><p>“i know,” calum says out loud, then, “but how am i going to cope without you walking around shirtless every morning before breakfast?”</p><p>luke leans in to press a kiss to calum’s pulse point, which turns into a hickey that has his legs buckling under him. he talks in calum’s head again, but mouths the words against his skin.</p><p>
  <em>i’ll just have to send you selfies, but only if you promise to send some, too.</em>
</p><p>“yeah, yeah. positive cal will supply us with more than enough jerk-off material. can we go? i still have to go beg my RA for my key back,” ashton butts in.</p><p>“eavesdropping is rude,” calum says. he disentangles himself from luke to glare at ashton.</p><p>“so is giving a guy the head of his life in an alley and then not even calling the next day,” ashton retaliates.</p><p>calum scoffs. “dude, we <em>live</em> together. what, did you expect us to go steady now or something?”</p><p>“what if i just wanted to take you to meet my family?” ashton pouts.</p><p>“slippery slope, mate. families love me. before you know it, it’ll be christmas or something and your mum will be handing you some family heirloom ring and guilting you into dropping a knee right before dessert. now, i don’t know about you, but i don’t really fancy myself hitched at 20.” calum’s tone is just serious enough to be convincing and ashton looks more worried with each word.</p><p>“you’re a dick,” mike decides, giving him a bored look.</p><p>“no, no. he makes a good point. he’s super sweet and pretty and charming as hell. introducing him to my family could be potentially problematic…” ashton trails off, lost in thought.</p><p>“so long as you know i’m not ashton - i don’t find your wise-cracks amusing, and i will beat the shit out of you if you piss me off,” mike threatens, pointing a warning finger at calum.</p><p>“so, my elaborate plan to lure you into bed with me is a pointless endeavour? i should just give up now, save myself the pain and suffering? forever take leave of my burning desire to be near you?” </p><p>“or you could opt to forever take leave of your nuts - your call,” mike says, reasonably.</p><p>“he loves me,” calum says to luke and ashton.</p><p>mike rolls their eyes. turning to the other two, they say, “good luck. don’t traumatise jones too much. i still want to live here, even if it is on the old man’s dime.”</p><p>“just the right amount, then?” ashton says, going in to hug them.</p><p>“we can’t leave him sane after the fucking witchhunt he’s started,” mike replies. they wrap ashton in a tight embrace and preen when he presses a kiss to their temple.</p><p>calum smiles. if there’s one good thing that came out of this entire mess of a year, it’s that he’s met these incredible people and can now comfortably call them his friends. he doesn’t know where he’d be without them.</p><p>luke doesn’t so much wrap mikey in a hug as pull them to him. towering over them all, mike opts for wrapping their arms around his waist and burying their face in his chest. maybe someday calum could make them happy like that. he’d never admit it, but it does bother him that luke and ashton seem to like him fine, but mike keeps him at arm’s length. he doesn’t know what he did to deserve this, but if there’s one thing this upcoming time alone is good for, it’s getting to the bottom of that.</p><p>so, naturally, after they bid luke and ash goodbye, mike disappears into their room with a definitive click of the lock on their door. calum stands stranded in the lounge for a minute before going outside to play with duke, who has since come to live with them.  </p><p>as always, the fluffy dog is happy to see him and runs right into his arms when he gets outside. calum picks him up and cuddles him close, using their proximity to soothe his own damaged ego. it’s not that he blames mike. he just hadn’t really expected to be shut out so completely and immediately. he’d really thought they at least liked him a bit better than that.</p><p>“it’s alright, dukey. at least we’ve still got each other, hey, champ? we don’t need mean emos with fantastic eyeliner and gorgeous legs…”</p><p>“hood!” the call comes from the sliding glass door and calum almost drops the dog.</p><p>there, looking like they’d heard every last word, stands mike. they’d changed out of their flannel from earlier and into this slightly see-through black mesh tank top; from their jeans into sweats. calum’s mouth goes dry.</p><p>“you wanna come play xbox with me? duke can come, too,” they say, sounding incredibly casual about the whole thing before retreating like they just assume calum would want to. </p><p>actually, why wouldn’t they? why is calum actually losing his mind right now? it’s xbox. they’re not inviting him into bed. he needs to get his shit together. </p><p>clinging onto duke a little tighter for bravery, calum heads inside to go get comfortable on the couch by the tv. duke curls up on the cushion in the middle, looking for all the world like he’d be cool with sleeping the entire day away. as he begins to wonder whether or not he should be setting up the gaming system, calum hears footsteps approaching, only to find mike heading past him with a bowl of popcorn.</p><p>they stop just short of disappearing down the hallway to look at calum over their shoulder. “are you coming?”</p><p>“i— yeah,” he replies, intelligently, and scrapes duke up off the furniture to follow suit.</p><p>in response, duke sighs the sigh of someone entirely resigned to a fate they have no control over. calum kisses the top of his fluffy head in consolation, which earns his hand a half-hearted lick in return.</p><p>stepping into mike’s room is nothing short of terrifying. not because the space itself is so shocking or unpredictable (it’s mostly black with a bunch of anime posters put up), but because calum has never been allowed in here before. mike themself is sitting on a cushion at the foot of their bed, getting their game ready. next to them, another cushion lies in wait. they say duke can curl up on the bed and calum deposits the poor animal gently, before claiming the other cushion.</p><p>“look, i don’t know what you’re so worked up about, but can you cool it? your tense energy is throwing me off and i just invited you into my personal realm for a friendly mario kart fueled ass-kicking.”</p><p>calum must stare at them a minute too long or something, but they raise their eyebrows at him, making their eyebrow piercing glint in the light from the tv. clearing his throat, calum gets comfortable and picks up his controller.</p><p>"well, since we're laying all our cards on the table, i'm not actually nearly as brave as i pretend to be. i just seem to really care what you think, for some reason, so i try to seem strong so you wouldn't think i'm some jock twat with no balls." calum lets all this stream out of him while he picks a character, finding it much easier to talk when he doesn't have to look at mike directly.</p><p>"i don't know, you seemed pretty tough to me the other night when dear old dad showed up unannounced. you looked like you were ready to deck him," mike says, prepping their own character. they reach up to push their fringe away and their arm brushes against calum's, making him nearly jump out of his skin.</p><p>"i wanted to. i'm not normally a very violent guy, but he was being a right dick to you. how do you stand it?" calum says as neutrally as he can, cursing himself for this pathetic display.</p><p>"i don't. every summer, the guys go home to their families, and i go traveling. last week of vacay, we all link up at luke's and party for a week and then it's back to classes. if i speak to mum or dad five times a year, that'd be plenty."</p><p>giving them a sideways look, calum chooses his next words carefully, "so, you go traveling by yourself?" </p><p>they shrug, turning to meet his eyes. "luke loves his family and ashton loves spending time with his siblings. it's not like i have much choice." </p><p>"i have a ton of money saved up from footie tournaments and that one modeling gig i did in high school. i could go with you this summer if you wanted?" calum offers.</p><p>"i– you mean that?" mike asks, eyes sparkling a little in the dark.</p><p>"i mean, i'm not too fond of fake flirting with girls all summer and listening to my dad brag about how great i am at football when he always adds that i am piss poor at academics," calum grumbles, turning back around to face the tv as they prepare to play.</p><p>mike beats him about five times before calum is ready to say die, but eventually hunger wins out and duke whines to be let out and they decide to give it a rest for now.</p><p>"so, what? your family expects you to be cristiano renaldo and fuck up your joints just to make boatloads of cash and settle down with poppy delevingne? do they just have zero prospects for you?" mike says as they both walk to let duke outside.</p><p>with their hands stuffed into their pockets, their shoulders hunch up impressively and calum keeps his averted in an attempt to control his nether-regions.</p><p>"basically. they sent mali to uni like it was the most natural thing in the world, but refused to do the same for me because they just expected me to fuck it up. i had to win a sports scholarship or just resign myself to playing club footie and selling slushies at the servo down the street."</p><p>they end up in the kitchen and calum unearths a pack of sweet chili doritos. he goes to check the fridge for cheese and when he finds some, he decides to make them both some nachos. picking up on what he's doing, mike sets themself the task of making the guac.</p><p>"do they know you've been casually acing all your classes? and that you're double majoring?" mike asks after a bit.</p><p>before answering, they both watch duke chase a ball across the kitchen floor, barking excitedly. he might be an old dude, but the big guy still plays like a puppy.</p><p>"haven't told them. i don't really care about them and their shit anymore, to be honest. i'm technically self-sufficient here, so i don't need to speak to them if i don't want," calum finally responds, shredding cheese over the last layer of chips.</p><p>when he puts the pan in the oven, mike puts the bowl of homemade guac in the fridge and the two of them decide to sit on the island while they wait for the oven timer to ding.</p><p>"well, since you're coming along, i think i'll finally start planning that backpacking trip across europe that i've been putting off since i was sixteen," mike says, watching their own legs swing where they dangle off the floor. "and you're not wasting your savings on that. if the 'rents wanna hit up hawaii or bali like a pair of spoilt rich kids every year, they can pay me to fuck off."</p><p>calum smiles to himself. "can't wait. honestly, it sounds like a dream. thanks, mikes."</p><p>he leans over to give mike a small, one-armed hug, but instead gets a lingering kiss on the cheek from them instead.</p><p>"thank you for standing up to my father, and for making me feel normal when my powers become too doom and gloom, and for always being nice to me even when i'm a bitch to you," they murmur near calum's ear.</p><p>calum's hand comes up of its own accord to caress the side of mike's face. he smiles warmly as he brushes his thumb maybe a touch too closely by mike's mouth.</p><p>"you've got nothing to thank me for. i'd do it all again in a heartbeat."</p><p>mike blushes for only the second time since calum's known them, choosing to get up for the nachos when the timer goes off. calum doesn't feel so awkward anymore.</p><p>***</p><p>"so, is this it? my great gothification?"</p><p>they're in this super posh-looking mall a few days later, in a store calum's never heard of, looking for warm clothes, since calum has decided that he doesn't even have to contact his father for his bag of winter things. mike is having the time of their life outfitting calum. they seem to have this incredible knack for pinpointing someone's style exactly and turning that into some kind of couture, turning calum from a pokey jock into a brown draco malfoy. </p><p>"i think it's time, don't you?" mike replies, reaching for a pair of boots calum, no lie, actually loves.</p><p>"i'd carve out two internal organs for those," calum says, making grabby hands.</p><p>"and they say witchcraft isn't satanic," someone says, behind them.</p><p>mike is the first one to whip around, narrowing their eyes disgustedly. turning, calum finds a stunning, leggy blonde by the name of halle barton. she's a first year, along with calum, and jonesing for a job in politics as soon as her law degree is finished. calum has always reasoned she should jones for marrying a politician instead, with some of the stale takes she comes up with.</p><p>"halle," calum says, casually stuffing his hands into his pockets and leveling with her. "didn't peg you for shopping in the goth section."</p><p>"i mean, i used to think you were cute, but it seems appearances can be deceiving," she responds.</p><p>"i can get behind that. like how all straight girls think that if a bloke is on the footie team, he has to be straight. common misconception." calum keeps his tone light and conversational, his expression politely interested.</p><p>"so, after getting our assignments back today, everyone has been wondering if you used your super special, non-satanic, totally un-creepy powers to get that A?" halle says, fixing her already perfect hair in the full body mirror across from her.</p><p>"actually, i just had a really good tutor," calum replies, winking at mike who had spent hours helping him with his criminology essay, "but i can use my super special, non-satanic, totally un-creepy powers to help you find your future fortune 500 fiancé?"</p><p>"nice alliteration," mike puts in. "ashton would be proud."</p><p>"you think?" calum asks, feeling warm.</p><p>"okay, look, I'm not particularly keen on watching you two nutcases flirt. an alert went out that two of the witch kids are out and about on campus, so everyone is, like, waiting outside the mall to lynch you both or something. i would buy your shit and get gone, if i were you," halle finishes, regarding them both disdainfully.</p><p>"<em>lynch</em>—" mike starts, but then calum is grabbing their arm.</p><p>it's like trauma-marked stills from an emergency news bulletin. angry faces with signs and even t-shirts, screaming and charging at them the moment they step outside. the images become only mobile enough to show calum a sick sort of gif of mike getting their nose shattered by a stray fist. it makes him jerk back into himself.</p><p>"we have to get out of here," calum whispers urgently.</p><p>mike doesn't need any further convincing. they wheel the shopping cart to the checkout with calum hot on their heels. he turns back at the last second.</p><p>"why are you helping us?" he asks halle.</p><p>she sighs. staring intently at a rack of truly hideous button-downs for a second have the garments literally going up in flames.</p><p>"we're not as rare as you think," she says in response to calum's stunned expression. "now, run."</p><p>calum finds mike at the store entrance and together the two take off in search of an emergency exit.</p><p>"a pyrokinetic? are you sure?" mike says as they duck behind a bakery van on their arduous trek home.</p><p>"she set a rack of shirts on fire with her mind," calum says, grabbing mike's hand to yank them back when they try to check whether the coast is clear. </p><p>a second later, a group of screaming people in white shirts adorned with some or other scripture come stampeding past. one of them yells that they saw mike and cal disappear into an alley up ahead. idiot.</p><p>"this is insane," mike assesses. "luke is probably losing his mind at all this, but we have to tell him about halle, too."</p><p>"i think we need to leave luke and ash alone until after the trial. they need clear heads and ash doesn't need to be incriminated any further," calum says. he pulls mike along and the two of them go back to jogging up the sidewalk.</p><p>"but if we get a group of people together, can't they stand as character witnesses for ashton?" mike tries again.</p><p>"no one is gonna wanna out themselves, and we don't need to put any more people through the shit they're currently putting us through. besides, we still need to take care of that godforsaken house and roy. we have enough on our plate— fuck."</p><p>the angry mob spots them before they can get away. turning to retrace their steps isn't feasible either when a second group comes barreling down on them.</p><p>"i don't see a way out," calum confesses, wondering if he can find it in himself to hit a girl.</p><p>"i have a trick up my sleeve," mike says, "but it's hefty. i've never actually done it without passing out."</p><p>"i got you, no matter what," calum says as both groups get near enough for him to smell the spray paint on their signs.</p><p>"then, hold on," mike says.</p><p>they take a deep breath and suddenly their entire body glows purple like a switch being flipped. as if they themself have become a ghost, wisps of what look like smoke detach from them and then become corporeal in the form of all kinds of people. all of them, however, glow faintly purple, too – and every last one of them goes bearing down on the two mobs.</p><p>"that's incredible!" calum cries out, laughing in awe. "you're incredible!"</p><p>"you got me, yeah?" mike says, then, sounding kind of glitchy, like their voice is struggling to come down a bad phone line.</p><p>calum grabs them just as they go down. the people they conjured – the dead, calum assumes – don't fade. they maintain their protective barrier, running along with calum when he dashes to get mike home. speaking of them, they don't stop glowing the entire time. only when they turn onto their street, with it empty and quiet, do the conjuring disappear back into puffs of smoke that gets sucked in by the glowing light dimming on mike. they jerk awake suddenly with a gasp.</p><p>"that was completely and utterly sick!" calum says, keeping up his pace. home is in sight.</p><p>mike chuckles in his arms, turning to bury their face in calum's chest. they wrap their arms around him for good measure.</p><p>it's only as they get home that calum realises how cold they feel. setting them down on the couch, calum leaves to go make them something warm to drink, but they only whine and pull him back with a freezing hand.</p><p>"mikey, you're ice cold. i'm just headed to make you some tea," calum says, but they shake their head.</p><p>"tea won't help. stay."</p><p>so, he stays. mike climbs back into his lap and wraps themself around him, nuzzling their face into his neck. they're utterly glacial, making calum's teeth chatter, but it wars with the heat filling his stomach and he doesn't want to move.</p><p>"are you sure you're okay?" he asks, then, cuddling them close.</p><p>with a sigh, they sit up to meet calum's eyes. "guess it's time we had the talk."</p><p>"no, mum, it's cool. i've been sexually active for a few years now."</p><p>"fuck off. ashton told me you blew him in a loading bay. you don't need any help on the sex front." they adjust themself into a comfier sitting position. "i meant it's time i explained why i kept you at arm's length until now."</p><p>"oh, yeah. that'd be cool," calum agrees, nodding.</p><p>"you know how luke found me, right?" when calum nods again, they continue, "well, what you might not know is that it took him three months to get there. i didn't pick up on anything weird right away, but i should have. looking back, it was painfully obvious… anyway, by the time luke finally pitched up, it'd gone on way too long. these ghosts, they'd literally used me as their conduit. they'd been existing, fully corporeal, for weeks by then. they… well, they can't live without my life force. so…" they take a deep breath, tears brimming in their eyes." i died, calum. luke found me, dead on the lounge floor."</p><p>in a daze, calum reaches out to brush their tears away. they keep staring at him, the saltiness spilling down their face silently.</p><p>with another bracing inhale, they add, "i can't actually die, apparently. since we commune with the dead, we're always half-dead, anyway. i just… don't have a heartbeat anymore. i can eat food, but i throw it back up later. i am never going to age or be able to grow out my hair or have kids or… <em>or</em>…" a shuddering exhale, and then they're crying again.</p><p>"but… you're crying," calum responds, dumbly.</p><p>"luke," they say immediately, as though his name explains everything.</p><p>and, to calum, it does.</p><p>"he's manifesting you, keeping your energy here. because of him, you're basically still alive," calum mutters, more to himself than to mike.</p><p>they only nod, sniffling miserably. slipping his sweatshirt over his head, calum hands it to them to use as a handkerchief. they take it gratefully.</p><p>"do your parents know?" calum can't help but ask when they've calmed down.</p><p>"no. telling them won't end well for me. but i do go visit nan sometimes. she died about ten years ago, which was honestly a blessing for her. she's clearer than she's ever been and has since gotten her room in the hospital quite cosy. when i went to visit the last time, she was having tea with keith. lindsey keith," they elaborate. "she'd been the love of nan's life when they'd been our age, but her parents had forced her to marry pa."</p><p>smiling despite himself, calum wraps cold mikey up in the warmest hug he can manage and pulls them against him. they go easily, wrapping themself back around him. calum opens his mouth to speak, but mike beats them to it.</p><p>"you're the warmest person i've ever met. ash and lukey, they're sweet and safe and i love them, but you're so warm and vibrant and alive, cal. you make me feel so normal and accepted. i love you so, so much."</p><p>and now calum is crying. he clings slightly tighter onto mike, kissing the side of their head. "love you, too, mikey. i should be thanking you. you're the one who messaged me, who got me together with all of you. you changed my life."</p><p>they kiss him just below his ear, before going back to resting their head on his shoulder. calum can't stop smiling.</p><p>that night, calum has a nightmare. he dreams they break down the door, tramping their house to shit and destroying everything he calls home now. duke's scared whining is very abruptly silenced and then it becomes too loud to hear anything but anger and hatred. they descend upon mike first, dragging them under as they leave nothing but damage on their soft, pale skin. all of calum's crying and screaming is entirely drowned out by the sheer number of fists and eyes and feet. when they come for him, he welcomes it. he doesn't know how he's recovering from such devastation anyway.</p><p>"calum!"</p><p>he sits up abruptly.</p><p>there, in the dim golden glow of his bedside lamp, is mike, green eyes almost luminous with worry. they're still tangled up with him from when they went to sleep earlier and they reach up a cool, gentle hand to press against his sweaty face.</p><p>"you okay? you were screaming something awful," they murmur, peering into his eyes.</p><p>"we have to leave," calum manages. mike frowns, but he pushes on, "it doesn't matter who wins at trial tomorrow, they're coming for us all. we have to leave here. they know where we live."</p><p>closing the space between them and wrapping themself back around calum, mike says into his ear, "then, we leave."</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"they were actually waiting for us outside the administration building," ashton recounts. "it was absolutely mad. they really looked like they had murder on their minds. security tried to help, but of course they were no match. it took luke speaking… well, we know how that usually ends."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"the house is trashed," mike shares, then. "we got out and crashed in calum's car. soon as the hearing started, they were there, breaking down the door and rushing inside. all our shit is dust. one of them even suggested they burn the place down, but we reckon one of our friends was there, because no sooner had the guy said that than he burst into flames himself."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>calum chuckles, reaching out to fist bump them. "good ol' halle."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"anyway, cal reckons that if we don't retaliate and keep to ourselves, even if we can do what we do, it'll leave us innocent in all this," mike continues. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"these people are a hate mob and they're destroying property with the intent to harm us. lawfully, there's no way they don't face repercussions," adds calum, eyes focused somewhere off camera.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>his gaze shifts until three mugs of coffee come floating onto the screen, joined a second later by luke, who fits himself into ashton's side.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"luke's right," ashton says, suddenly. "we don't want to implicate ourselves in any retaliating type of way, but if someone else reported these assholes, we could have the powers that be on our side sooner rather than later."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"we could post the pics we took of the house?" mike suggests, eyes peering intently into calum's.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"and we have video footage of the state of things outside the admin building," ash says.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"i say we do it," calum says. "but, also, i think tonight is the night we sort out roy and my old place."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>luke nods like he'd been thinking the exact same thing. with a resigned sigh, mike and ashton agree, too.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"so, who's breaking roy out of the hospital?" calum asks, then.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>a second later, the video cuts out.</em>
</p><p>"…sorry," calum says, into the loaded silence.</p><p>but then ash is laughing and so is mike, and luke looks like he's barely holding it together, too.</p><p>"don't be dicks," calum whines, dropping his face into mike's shoulder.</p><p>"no, no!" mike says, putting comforting fingers in calum's hair. "it's a valid question. maybe just not on a livestream, though." they press a kiss to the top of calum's head.</p><p>"also, i think it should be you and luke," ashton says. "mikes and i can go set up at the house. did you save the equipment?" </p><p>he points the last question at mike.</p><p>"it was never in the house," mike smirks. "we're going on a little mission of our own."</p><p>***</p><p>the metallic groan of the bay door opening has them both ducking for cover behind a line of medical bins, but it's only two nurses ducking out for a smoke. it's like they know where to be.</p><p><em>i got it</em>, luke grips calum's arm to say, before ducking out and straightening out his clothes.</p><p>he walks up to the two men, limping something terrible. he cuts such a pathetic picture, with his hair all un-quiffed and messy like that, not to mention how pale and drawn he looks from the night he and ashton had spent on the run. the nurses come over with twin expressions of concern and when they pull up on him, calum clamps his hands over his ears. luke barely says two words to them before they're out cold on the asphalt. calum rushes over. </p><p>"you're amazing," calum says, dragging the one nurse off to the side.</p><p>luke rolls his eyes as he levitates both nurses off between two ambulances and out of sight. he shoves his hair off his forehead as he goes, looking for all the world like a hot frat boy with his lip-ring and blonde curly tangle.</p><p>"i mean it," calum insists as the two of them strip the nurses out of their scrubs. "you're so powerful and sexy and gorgeous. do you ever just relish being a god amongst men?"</p><p>smirking, luke drops his nurse like a sack of potatoes to sign. <em>you can stop flirting with me now. i am </em>not<em> having sex with you in an empty hospital ward.</em></p><p>"you know what? that was actually a genuine compliment and you had to go ruin it with your crude innuendos. i am trying to cheer you up, dipshit. nothing these asshole haters have to say about us is true or worth entertaining. you know you're 100% pure egyptian gold, inside and out. don't let them get you down," calum says to him, finally getting the nurse entirely naked, save for the dude's underwear.</p><p>when he looks up, luke is there, staring at him. calum's eyes stretch wide and he wonders if he'd possibly said something wrong. mali has spoken to him before about talking while he's distracted. but luke only pulls him closer and right into a heart-stopping kiss.</p><p>for a second, calum's mind goes entirely blank and he only stands there, with luke's lips on his and the scrubs in his hands. but then it's like a bolt of lightning jolts him into action and he drops the clothes to get his hands on luke, his mouth moving to deepen their kiss and luke gasps. for a tiny forever, the two boys kiss like crazy and calum has luke fetched up against the side of one of the ambulances. luke licks his way into calum's mouth to suck on his tongue and calum forgets himself entirely, his hips rutting forward of their own accord. the moan that rises, unbidden, from low in luke's throat makes calum's legs buckle and a spasm of something so purely good shoot through his lower abdomen that he honestly can't even think of doing anything besides getting closer and closer to this stunning boy in his arms.</p><p>but then luke changes gears and slips out of calum's hands and onto his feet to press calum back against the ambulance. fingers gripping calum's hips beneath his shirt has him whining and luke tightens his hold while crushing himself against calum. all the while, they make-out like there's no tomorrow (which, for all they know, there might not be), nipping at each other's lips and leaving hickeys on each other's throats. their hips grind together in a hypnotic rhythm and calum is getting <em>hard</em>. god, he wants to fuck luke so bad. just take him right here in this damn loading bay until his moans and sounds are all calum can hear, all that fuels him on. luke is breathing heavily, exhaling hotly into calum's mouth, getting him dizzy on lust and carbon dioxide.</p><p>right as calum's horniness is about to win out, the loading bay door opens again and he and luke jump apart. in a flash, luke steps out in front of calum and the unconscious nurses and starts glowing faintly purple. the woman, who appears to be a doctor, that steps out in search of her colleagues no doubt, looks right at them for only a second before calling out both men's names and then stomping angrily back into the hospital.</p><p>"incredible," calum whispers, still very much dizzy and desperately craving luke back against him.</p><p>turning to calum, luke signs, this is to be continued, but we gotta get a move on if we still wanna get back in time for the rest of the plan.</p><p>with a long-suffering sigh, calum nods and then starts pulling off his own clothes. as he pulls his shirt over his head, he sees luke's eyes run down his torso and he gets a little bold. he goes up to the stunningly disheveled boy and starts undoing the drawstring on his joggers. with a heavy sigh, luke leans in and gets calum's bottom lip between his teeth, sucking it languidly into his mouth and making calum fight to keep from going boneless. he pulls luke's black crew neck over his head instead. the already iridescent blue of luke's eyes burn hot and dark into calum's. the magnetic pull between the two of them is impossibly strong. calum just wants this stupid plan to be over so he and luke can—</p><p>"did i… accidentally smoke crack again?" calum says as they pull up in front of the house he and roy had used to share.</p><p>luke, who drove them here it seems, stares at him like he's asking himself the same question. he reaches for calum's hand tentatively, as if he's scared of what touching calum could trigger.</p><p>
  <em>i think… and this is only a theory, so don't hold me to it – but i think our powers reacted. they worked together, somehow. i don't know how that would happen, but we somehow pulled off our plan without a hitch.</em>
</p><p>and, sure enough, there was roy, comatose, in the backseat.</p><p>"well, fuck."</p><p>luke makes a face, but switches off the car nonetheless. together, the two of them unload roy and calum carries him inside while luke gets out the hospital equipment.</p><p>the inside of the house is freezing and almost pitch dark, all the windows cakes over in this disgusting, crusty, pale yellow fluid. calum wants to crawl out of his skin and then set the place on fire for good measure. the moment luke steps inside, though, the purple veins spiderweb across his skin and he grits his teeth against a pull only he seems to feel. wishing he could help somehow, calum only sets roy down on the dank sofa and then relieves luke of the tech that calum gets to work hooking back up to roy.</p><p>"what does it feel like?" calum asks, trying some of mali's mindfulness to ground luke.</p><p>"like my skeleton is trying to eject itself through my skin," luke says. "the house is trying to use my energy to bring the dead back to life, but that's against the natural order. so, at the same time, it's trying to drag me onto their plane. so, my body wants to stay and my skeleton wants to go. i'm an overfilled water balloon."</p><p>"have i told you your voice is really pretty yet?" calum says, then, mildly distracted, but mostly still trying to distract luke.</p><p>luke chuckles. "love you, cal."</p><p>"love you, too."</p><p>"gods, he looks like shit," ashton assesses, sweeping into the room with two crates levitating ahead of him.</p><p>mike comes in on his heels, toting another crate with a duffle on top and looking extremely far from amused.</p><p>"really? we hadn't noticed," calum responds, glaring at him.</p><p>"right," mike intervenes, setting their crate down and unzipping the duffle. "cal, you're nice and shredded, you can help luke and ashton with setting up the heavy stuff. i'll be down here, keeping an eye on roy and setting up our portable wifi for the monitors."</p><p>with a frown, calum lifts up his shirt to discover that he actually is quite defined. he has yoga with ashton to thank, he reckons. when he looks up, everyone's eyes are on him. so, he drops his shirt and goes for one of the crates. ashton clears his throat and pointedly looks away from them. mike is the only one who appears at all focused.</p><p>they spend a good hour, working diligently to set up all the monitoring and detection equipment. after that, ashton sends the other three across the street so he can he can go a round through the house with the emf metre. while they wait, luke decides to sit around like some alt model looking aesthetically exhausted and calum sits there replaying their time in the loading bay on repeat in his head.</p><p><em>stop that</em>, luke sounds up then – without touching him this time.</p><p>without turning to look at him, calum replies, <em>what, have we finally 'connected'? </em></p><p><em>oh, hours ago. probably around the time you started dry-humping me against that ambulance</em>, luke responds.</p><p><em>you weren't complaining</em>, calum responds, staring up at the house and hoping ashton is okay.</p><p>
  <em>that's because i was actually quite enjoying myself, thanks.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>same, though. quite a good time, i felt.</em>
</p><p><em>wanna get off together in the cinema during that vampire marathon this weekend?</em> luke asks, dropping his face into his sweater-pawed hands.</p><p><em>literally thought you would never ask</em>, calum smiles internally.</p><p>"ash is done," mike says, then, as if to get their attention. "so, you two can stop mind-fucking now. we have ghosts to banish."</p><p><em>oh, c'mon, mikey. we know how much you love to hate the twilight movies. you can come, too!</em> luke calls after them.</p><p>"like i was honestly going to miss out on that!" they call back and calum can hear the smile in their voice.</p><p>"miss out on what?" ashton asks from the front door.</p><p>"vampires," calum says, dragging luke inside by the hand.</p><p>"ash hates vampires," luke says, having crossed the threshold.</p><p>"how do you hate vampires?" mike wants to know.</p><p>"they're overrated. always been more of a witch guy myself," he says, making sparks shoot out of his fingertips in a pretty spray.</p><p>"what does you being a witch guy have to do with you hating vampires?" calum asks, ducking out of the way when ash swings a fist at him.</p><p>"okay, so, this is all going to be super easy, in theory," mike starts, then. "luke is going to open up the barrier between our plane and theirs and then, ashton, you're gonna help him keep the energy out of flux and constant so i can get it and out as fast as possible. cal, you're watching the monitors. i take an earpiece with me, along with a headcam, and you keep an eye out for any irregularities on the system in any of the rooms. if you get any feelings, visions or Inclinations not depicted by the monitors, you tell me immediately. constant communication is the only way we all make it out alive. clear?"</p><p>everyone nods, expressions ranging from to determined to petrified. calum clears his throat, to keep from choking up, but he figures he might as well say something.</p><p>“look, before we all do what we came here to do, i have something to say.” when everyone is back to staring at him and he feels sufficiently awkward and ready to run headlong into the plane of the dead (for lack of a less dramatic, more official-sounding name), calum continues, “i know his is the kind of thing you guys do, and so this is just a job for you, but i’ve never met anyone like any of you. i used to think i know pretty good people, but since meeting you, i’ve had to entirely reevaluate what i thought ‘good’ even was. ash, i have never known someone as utterly fearless as you; someone so ready to run headlong into dismal odds for the people he loves. honestly, the ghosts and ghouls you face really ought to be more scared of you. lukey, you’re ethereal. your parents must’ve made a deal with an angel to be blessed with you. i meant what i said this morning: egyptian gold, babe. and mikey… i think you might be the single toughest, coolest and smartest person i know. i could talk to you forever, and i want to — so you have to come back, yeah?” by this point, all four of them are teary-eyed, but calum isn’t done. “i love all three of you with my entire heart. no matter what happens, i’m yours now.”</p><p>and, suddenly, calum finds him flat on the ground. he can’t tell which of them had tackled him, but he isn’t complaining. he gets slathered in kisses and hugs and he feels a little bit like when duke climbs onto him when he’s laying on the couch. he could have stayed there forever.</p><p>***</p><p>it’s over an hour later and luke is levitating off the floor in the living room. well, his physical body is. his metaphysical form is pacing up and down behind the monitors, anxiously waiting for the doorway to be big enough for mike to pass through. now, when calum says ‘metaphysical form’ what he means is that’s luke, he just flickers like an old tube tv-station and he’s entirely void of colour. oh, and he’s a ghost, essentially.</p><p>in the corner of the room, made to sit up in the lone armchair, is roy, his machinery beeping along quietly. so far, there had been no outward reaction from him. his vitals also haven’t changed. for all intents and purposes, he could be dead. calum shudders at the thought of what he’ll have to say to roy’s parents if this doesn’t work.</p><p>“i can see them!” mike says in frustration, shoving their fringe off their forehead. the teal looks weirdly spooky and luminous in the purple light emanating from luke’s floating body.</p><p>“i see them, too, but the doorway is still way too hazy and unstable. i don’t know what’ll happen to you if you pass through now,” luke warns.</p><p>“i know what’ll happen to me if i don’t,” they say.</p><p>and just like that, mike walks towards luke’s body and disappears in a startling flash of purple light.</p><p>“jesus h. fuck, clifford. must you be so—”</p><p>“for fuck’s sake, mike, be careful!” luke screams over ashton.</p><p>the earpiece calum is wearing gives a burst of feedback at the pitch of luke’s voice, but then it gets eerily quiet, the only sound in the room ashton’s unsettling chanting. it’d been his idea to use luke’s body as an energy source, instead of giving him the sole responsibility of maintaining the equilibrium. the fact of the matter is that two people cannot do it at once, so ashton would have been essentially sidelined. this way, they have a very powerful source of energy and ashton won’t be overwhelmed the way luke could have been.</p><p>“<em>i should’ve brought a jacket</em>.”</p><p>“mike?” calum says, sitting bolt upright in his seat, scanning the monitor getting the feed from mike’s camera furiously, but it’s still as black as ever.</p><p>“<em>it’s freezing in here</em>,” they continue, as if calum hadn’t spoken at all. “<em>like being sent out for pe in winter. your toes and fingers and nose almost immediately burn numb from the intense cold, and it almost knocks the breath clean out of you…</em>”</p><p>“mikey?” calum tries again. “mikes, can you hear me?”</p><p>but it’s no use. he can’t see them, and they can’t hear him. they just keep talking, their disembodied voice seeming to come from everywhere now.</p><p>“<em>i can’t see them. i’m in the house, wandering the upstairs, but there’s no one here. the rooms keep changing every time i look in them, like an old tv skipping channels. like… lukey, you remember that bicarb solution we made once to clean the strings on the bow of your violin? we mixed it too strong and it almost made the cup…</em> glitch<em>? that was right before—”</em></p><p>“…the cup exploded,” luke says aloud and the temperature in the house drops ten degrees.</p><p>there’s a series of random smashing sounds, all happening at once throughout the house. the candles ashton had lit all shoot their flames into the air and luke’s body goes from glowing purple to shining beaconlike, white hot and blinding like a star. at once, all of their electronics die in various short-circuits.</p><p>“<em>no! i’m here to help you! stop!</em>”</p><p>calum flies to his feet.</p><p>“someone has to get to them!” ashton shouts then. “i can’t feel them in there anymore!”</p><p>“mike!” calum screams, luke’s body blinding him completely. “mikey, i’m coming!”</p><p>“calum, no!” ashton makes a sweeping motion with his arm, sending calum flying back through the air. “you don’t have the proper training. they’ll kill you.”</p><p>“<em>they could be killing mike right now!</em>” he shrieks back.</p><p>“that’s why <em>i’m</em> going in to save them,” ashton announces, getting to his feet. “luke, the portal is going to close behind me, but you have to make it back to your body and try to open it up again, okay? i’ll do what i can from in there.”</p><p>“no! ash, <em>please</em>?!” luke sobs out. “don’t go! don’t leave me…”</p><p>with a last, painfully heartbreaking look, ashton steps backwards into the white light and is gone. the tortured shriek of innumerable voices fill the room for the briefest moment, before falling abruptly silent as the light from luke’s body dies out.</p><p>and, then, calum is alone, his only companion the television, playing static.</p><p>***</p><p>“<em>good morning, mr. hood.</em></p><p>
  <em>i hope this email finds you well. i am of the understanding that you’ve been having a rather tough go of it lately and, unfortunately, i am not coming to you with better tidings. this is the second consecutive week you have no attended classes or football practise. you have missed several deadlines and a student may only be in possession of a sports scholarship if said student partakes in a campus-offered sport. since you have not been doing so, we are being forced to forfeit your scholarship. you 24 hours to set an appointment with my office to discuss these proceedings, as well as what there is to be done to stop or reverse them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>i understand that your circumstances are unique and that grief is the one force in the world that no one can reckon with. do not make things harder on yourself. set the appointment and accept the help at your disposal.</em>
</p><p><em>hoping to hear from you soon,</em><br/><em>the vice-chancellor.</em>”</p><p>none of them ever came back.</p><p>calum still has nightmares of that night; of him running through the house, suddenly just an unassuming structure with all his secondhand furniture in it, as he screams himself hoarse, his throat raw and tears making him choke. eventually, the neighbours called campus security. after a full 72 hours in a jail cell, they couldn’t find anything to pin on calum, the evidence circumstantial at best and completely inconclusive besides. he’d spent all that time crying and then the rest of the week, too. now, he can’t even cry if he tried. all he manages are hoarse screams when his nightmares jolt him awake.</p><p>they’d tried to get him to go home, his family. mali had flown down from london to come see him and had sat with him for hours, soothing him and begging him to let her and their parents take care of him, but he can’t leave. he can’t even move out of that godforsaken house. it’s his own personal penance.</p><p>besides, what if they all came back and he wasn’t here for them? he has to stay here.</p><p>he’s currently sitting in the waiting room of the vice-chancellor’s office. her secretary had told him to have a seat almost half an hour ago. so, he sits there and waits, hating being away from the house for even a second. this lady had begged him to make an appointment and now he’s waiting on her. fucking figures.</p><p>“calum?”</p><p>he looks up slowly, his own head a lead weight on his shoulders.</p><p>“you can come on in.” her smile is too perfect and her makeup looks like it’s permanently plastered to her face.</p><p>in her hyper-modern, sleek, million-dollar office, he dumps himself into one of the chairs across from her desk and stairs through the floor-to-ceiling window at the campus sprawling out behind her. he feels like he stepped into a 90s teen drama.</p><p>“it’s good to see you out and about,” she says, conversationally.</p><p>“am i expelled?” he manages.</p><p>she sighs and clasps her hands on the desk between them. there’s silence between them for a moment, which calum reckons must be super uncomfortable for her, but he’s used to the quiet. the house is like a mausoleum, save for duke’s occasional activity. he just keeps staring past her, out the window, wondering how he ever could’ve been one of them — the people out there who have nothing more than their grades to worry about.</p><p>“if you can make up the three assignments and two tests you missed and make every other football practise for the rest of the year, then you can retain your scholarship. we can even relocate you to on-campus housi—”</p><p>“<em>no</em>,” he says firmly. </p><p>“sorry?”</p><p>“no,” he says, meeting her eyes for the first time. “the lease on the house i live in is until the end of the year. the housing allowance of the scholarship pays for extra expenses and the more than reasonable rent of the house. i’m not moving.”</p><p>“calum, not to labour a point, but surely it can’t be healthy for you to continue living there…”</p><p>a knock at the door, blissfully, cuts her off. poking her head inside, the secretary asks to see the vice-chancellor for a moment. she excuses herself to no reaction from calum.</p><p>as the door closes behind her, a pen from her desk rolls off and falls to the floor. with a heavy sigh, he bends to pick it up. a shuffle on the desk has him rising very quickly, in case something else decides to go tumbling down. instead, he finds a post-it note taped to the surface, right in front of where he’s sitting. in a very familiar handwriting, a single word adorns the small square of bright pink paper.</p><p>“<em>library</em>”</p><p>he’s out of there like a shot, almost slamming directly into the vice-chancellor, but side-stepping her at the last second. as he runs, he gets a rapid succession of visions. he hasn’t seen anything since they all disappeared. it’s like his power decided to leave along with them. but now all that hollowness is being filled up with all these extremely vivid images flooding his head. the spur him on, guiding him through the library door and clear over the card-activated turnstile. the asshole nerd from forever ago runs after him, but calum has him more than outpaced. on the third floor, in the PhD archival section, screams and cries are already sounding up as he closes in. clearing that turnstile too, he races through the stacks.</p><p>right before he emerges from amongst the towering shelves, he finds himself skidding to a halt at the sight of another post-it.</p><p>“<em>miss us? :) xoxo</em>”</p><p>tearing it down with a grin, he almost breaks into a run again, but stops again. there, right in the middle of a stretch of wall about a meter wide, a point of light, about the size of his fist, glows the most beautiful shades of purple and green he’s ever seen.</p><p>“you guys, what the fuck is that?” one of the doctorate students asks, voice trembling.</p><p>“it’s them,” calum says, without thinking.</p><p>he moves right up to the wall, pressing his hand right to the slowly widening light-point. his fingers pass right through and he gasps — and then shoves his hand right back in.</p><p>“mike?” he says, the name a knife right into his heart. the thing he most fears right now is hope, but he can’t stop it from filling him to the brim. “luke? ashton? can anyone hear me? i’m here!”</p><p>“excuse me, you are not permitted—”</p><p>“blow me, poindexter, before i shove my card so far up your ass you’ll be chewing plastic,” calum sneers, making the guy back up several steps in terror.</p><p>something brushes against calum’s hand and then grabs it. he’d know those fingers anywhere. gripping them back, he pulls.</p><p>“i got you! ash, i got you! come on! come back!” </p><p>by the point, a small crowd of people has gathered, phones aloft and filming. distantly, calum wishes ashton or luke was out here instead of him. they could’ve taken out all those phones no problem. as it stands, he just keeps pulling. something is giving and it might just be his shoulder socket, but he’s staying optimistic.</p><p>“…<em>lum! calum!</em>” </p><p>“oh my god,” he gasps. “ashton, i can hear you! c’mon, babe, just a little farther!”</p><p>with a massive rush like a rainstorm, the hole in the wall rips wide open, sending a gust of wind of hurricane-proportions through the room. stacks topple and books are blown apart. one of the tables goes flying right through the ceiling-level bank of windows, sending glass raining down, but calum stands his ground. the light streaming out at them is the same starlike light luke had beamed that night, shot through with veins of the faintest purple and green. then, suddenly, calum is pushed back gently — as ashton, mike and luke step through the wall and into the library.</p><p>the portal closes up behind them immediately and the wind dies down abruptly, leaving a smothering silence in its wake.</p><p>calum is the first to speak. </p><p>“‘miss us’?” he says. “‘<em>miss us</em>’? be glad i’m in love with you losers or you’d be toast right now. you twice, hemmings, for writing this.” he brandishes he crumpled post-it at them before dropping it as they envelope him in a hug.</p><p>this time, the tears don’t hurt. being amongst them, he feels like all his ragged edges are being knitted together again. they’re home. they came back to him!</p><p>“we’re always coming back to you,” luke says, then. “you’re our home, cal.”</p><p>“you can talk!” calum cries harder, kissing luke full on the mouth.</p><p>luke laughs when they break apart, pressing a kiss to calum’s forehead, too.</p><p>“are you assholes <em>filming</em> this?” ashton says, voice dripping indignation.</p><p>with a single motion of his hand, all phones crumble in on themselves as their owner let out variou noises of distress. among them, the vice-chancellor and two members of campus security. her face looks like it’ll never be able to shift out of it’s utterly shocked expression. calum almost wants to laugh at it, but instead he walks right up to her and glares her down.</p><p>“magic is real,” he says, “and we’re not the only ones on this campus capable of it. until now, we have chosen to use our powers for good, while your students have chosen to hunt us down. that’s going to change. you’re going to mandate that change. i promise to make up every last missed assignment and attend every practise i possibly can, so long as you don’t expel or punish my friends and give them the same help you’re offering me. no special treatment, just equality.”</p><p>with a deep breath, the vice-chancellor composes herself and then nods once. “your terms are fair, mr. hood. they will be met.”</p><p>calum smiles at her, before turning back to the three best people in his life.</p><p>approaching them again, he says, “roy?”</p><p>ashton shakes his head while mike comes forward to give him a hug.</p><p>“we tried. he even tried. the house… it’d taken too much of a toll. he was going to be sickly for the rest of his life. he said his goodbyes to his family and then chose to move on,” ash explains.</p><p>“thank you for everything you did for him,” calum says. he can’t even bring himself to feel sad. if roy is happy, he’s happy.</p><p>“you live in the mcintyre house on embury, right?” a girl asks behind him.</p><p>“i do,” calum says, turning to her.</p><p>“so many people have gone missing in that house over the years. my sister and i rented there last year. i woke up to her walking into her closet and then she was just gone,” the girl explained.</p><p>“is your sister sasha?” luke asks.</p><p>frowning, the girl says, “yeah. that’s her.”</p><p>“that makes you emmie!” luke smiles. “she told us to tell you that she loves you and your mum and she’s sorry for leaving you, but she’s so proud of how far you’ve come.”</p><p>emmie launches herself at luke, who hugs her back with a soft smile. after about a trillion thank yous and a million tears, emmie leaves with a friend and the four of them are once again alone.</p><p>“well, since i’m nice and shredded, i can help you two,” calum aims at luke and ashton, “to get the stacks back up in order. mike, since you’re the brains, you can figure out the filing system.”</p><p>“<em>muuuuuuuuummmm</em>,” mike whines, “i just came back from purgatory. i’m tired. can’t i clean my room later?”</p><p>“now, or no xbox for a week,” calum fires back.</p><p>“right, back to the land of the dead i go,” mike says, making to turn back to the wall.</p><p>“oh, c’mon, mikey. you can do that conjuring the dead thing of yours again and have them help clean the place up,” calum suggests, righting a table.</p><p>“or i could conjure just one to shut you up,” mike counters, heading to the archival computer to see if they can get it working again.</p><p>“gotchu!” luke says and suddenly calum rises into the air and levitates in the direction of the stairs, trying his hardest to fight and yell, but he can’t move and definitely can’t get a sound out.</p><p>frowning up at calum, ashton puts in, “well, that’s not very nice to say to people who literally died and then came back for you.”</p><p>“no, we <em>are</em> dicks. i am just too tired to feel offended about anything ever again. love you, callie!” luke says, smiling radiantly up at him.</p><p>no one even bats an eye as calum comes floating by them, except for one of the front desk clerks who chuckles into his water bottle. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>please leave a comment and a kudo if you liked this. even if it's just an emoji. validate me. if you didn't like this, that sounds like a 'you' problem. do you want a sequel or two, mayhaps?</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>